#so i like flew away as a ghost and i was supposed to be invisible but it was raining so that fucks up my ghost powers i guess

[whumpy-wyrms]

i was legitimately fully lucid dreaming last night and the second i tried to conjure up Anton I WOKE UP. WHY

[aprocessionofthoughts]

Metropolis

ectoberhaunt2023 day 22-portal shenanigans TW- none summary- Danny gets flung int the DCU and decides to become a villain

ao3 ectoberhaunt masterlist part 1 of TCAB

Danny was feeling so done with Clockwork right now. All Danny had said was that he wanted a break from his kingly duties. Clockwork had told him to come to the Long Now. And okay. Danny could admit that he should have been more suspicious or at least cautious. But still! 

Wanting a break was not the same as having Clockwork toss him through a random portal where he’d be able to ‘destress.’ This was the opposite of destressing and Danny would make sure Clockwork knew it when the old clock decided to let him go back.

Danny sighed. He didn’t even know where he was. What was he even supposed to do?

He was in some kind of large city and he remembered Clockwork saying something about superheroes before yeeting Danny through the portal.

What superheroes lived here Danny had no idea, and honestly, he didn’t really care enough to find out. 

Maybe Danny though, since there were already heroes here, Danny could be a villain.

Yes, that was a brilliant idea. Danny grinned, aware that his smile was stretching too wide for his face.

But what to do, what to do.

He obviously didn’t want to be a terrible, no good, very bad villain. He didn’t want to kill people or steal from people who were struggling. So obviously he just had to steal from the rich. 

And how convenient. That was definitely a skyscraper over there.

Danny flew in that direction not caring enough to read the name on the side of the building.

He arrived invisibly and used his intangibility to fly down to the deepest level. The most interesting things were always hidden in the basement. Danny would know. They had a ghost portal in theirs and Vlad had a creepy lab in his.

And ohhh!!!! Those were some shiny rocks. They looked like ectoplasm but solid. He wondered… 

Danny flew forward and grabbed as many as he could carry, stuffing the rest into one of his pocket dimensions. Pocket dimensions were a very nice perk of being the Ancient of Space, if only he had inherited the power of remembering where he put things. Oh well. He’d find them eventually. 

Danny carried out five pieces with him as he flew up through the building. He’d only just gotten outside when someone loudly and sanctimoniously proclaimed, “Halt.”

Danny paused and took in the sight of a man dressed in blue and wearing red underwear over his clothing.

“Dude, you look so cringy.” Was that mean? Oh well. It’s not like Danny would be in this dimension very long.

The man gaped at him and then narrowed his eyes when he saw what Danny was carrying. Then he flew farther backwards.

“Drop the Kryptonite.”

Was that what this was? “Finders keepers.”

“Kid, leave the Kryptonite and we can talk.”

“Why would I want to talk with you?”

The man’s expression hardened and Danny grinned.

“Are they yours?” Danny asked. 

“Listen, it’s extremely dangerous. So, you need to put them down.”

Danny frowned. “These things aren’t dangerous. See?” Danny said and stuck one in his mouth. It tasted kind of tangy but also sweet. It was actually pretty good. He popped the other two into his mouth and the older man gaped at him. 

“What did you do!”

Danny laughed maniacally like all the good villains do. “You will neer get your shiny rocks back.” Danny laughed again before going invisible and flying away, stifling his laughter behind his hands.

This was actually pretty fun. Maybe Clockwork was onto something.

[innome0]

brain vomit

hi so i was thinking "wouldnt it be cool if there was a dpxyj comic and then my brain started to vomit idea so i'll just leave em here

AU where danny’s parents finding out he’s  ghost dosnt go too well and he ends up running away and ends up joining the young justice team or just a general crossover between dc and the young justice

*phantom planet isn’t canon at least not until later

*danny probably gets adopted by bruce

*there is also the route of them not hurting him but telling him to leave, maybe the GIW convinces them to work with them and haunt him later on or they help save him from the GIW but he decides to stay with the team since they are his family now and the fentons still hurt him and did hunt him like the GIW

*if we go the reveal dosnt go well route then danny probably wont be very trusting especially with the heroes since they work with the government and the anti ecto acts exist, he’ll probably meet them ad help them the disappear after

>danny runs away with his bags and after flying for a long while lands on a random roof cuz he’s drained and tired, he just collapses and wakes up some hours later (its night) he flys again and looks for abandoned buildings till he finds a place, he takes his essentials out then phases the bags into the roof so they’re hidden and finally it sets in and he breaks down for a while till the fenton-phone he has rings and he gets surprised then answers and immedietly sam and tuckers swarm him with questions if he’s okay and what happened so he tells them and now that you mention it he has a wound from before that he’s yet to treat, he’s been so emotionally and mentally drained he forgot about it, they ask him and he says he honestly dosnt know he just flew as fast as he could and tucker says its probably for the best if he dosnt say just in case the call is spied on and sam tells him to take care of his wound and to rest and to check back with them and danny agrees and they tell him they’ll update him on how things go with his parents and amity and with that the call ends with cyas and take cares, after the call ends danny just sighs and gets up to grab a bag from the seilling and takes his medical supplies and starts to take care of his wound then decides to sleep

>danny meets the young justice while they are on a mission fighting near a warehouse with a part of it having collapsed from a explosion which is what caught danny’s attention while he was flying around to clear his head even tho he’s supposed to be resting since he’s still healing, he floats there watching while invisible for a little bit before seeing one of the team members in a very tight spot and he freezes the goons which surprises everyone then he goes on to freeze some more goons, the team is confused and the goons are confused so they start shooting frantically and randomly yelling for whoever it is to show themselves and danny gets hit with one of their attacks which surprises him and knocks him out of invisibility for a bit (maybe a energy or electricity based gun), he quickly goes back into invisibility saying “that was uncalled for” and he freezes them then says “cya” to the team before flying away while someone from the team calls for him to wait

>danny goes back to his hiding place and lays down “man I probably shouldn’t have done that”

>somethings happen and danny meets some justice league members (batman-superman-flash-wonder woman-martian manhunter), usually he would be very excited but he was very nervous. What if they decided he’s a threat or worse handed him over to the GIW and they notice his nervousness, for a while he’s a honorary member and is hesitant about joining the team but after a bit he opens up abit and tells them about the ghosts, anti ecto laws and the hunters and ofc batman hears about this and begins investigating and talks to danny about them to get more details (the team and JL think danny Is a full ghost at this point)

>danny gets captured by the GIW (his parents either help capture him or help save him, maybe by giving the GIW location or info to the team or just busting the place with the help of jazz and sam and tucker, tucker would probably hack the JL\ team computer to give them the info) danny getting saved by his team shows him that they genuinely care about him and he accepts them as his new family, after recovering he’s abit nervous but he tells the team about the fact that he’s half human too and his parents, they tell him they understand and that they cant wait to meet him other half

>the JL come to check on danny and how he’s doing and to give him an update on how things are going with taking the acts down, they’ve arranged a conference which superman will be taking care of and they want danny to be there to represent the ghosts and answer at least some questions to at least shut some mouths and satisfy some minds which danny reluctantly agrees to go to, he lets superman talk before joining him on stage and talking aswell, after its done superman puts his hand on his shoulder and tells him he did well which calms danny’s nerves abit >in the end the acts get taken down, danny joins the team and smiles sadly at the place he’s bee crashing him throughout all of this before taking his bags and flying to his new home. Then maybe a special with the phantom team meeting the YJ team or at least them visiting danny since its been a while and also danny chewing out superma cuz of how he treats conner at the start and the team meets dani :D (that is a very important part idc >:D 2 in 1 gremlin backage baby)

note : idk if i'll expand on this but i really hope i do xD maybe even draw a comic of it myself if my self confidence dosnt get in the way or at the very least turn it into a fanfiction.

also english isnt my first language so uuh sorry for any spelling mistakes

any ways.....what do you guys think of the idea of a comic crossover between dp and yj or dc in general

(i did not reread this before posting it :'>)

[camels-pen]

livin' two lives is a little weird

Summary:

Sam and Tucker had no manners. No manners at all.

Danny couldn't really argue with the outcome though.

based on @ectoblastfromthepast's prompt "Everyone knows Danny is Phantom. But they don't know about his *other* double life."

Ao3 Link | Haunted Harry series

“Do I have to do this?”

“Nope.”

“Wait, really?”

“You don’t have to do anything.” Ember grinned. “But if you chicken out and don’t go through with this, I’ll tell Plasmius who really dyed his cats hot pink.”

Danny groaned.

---

“Hey guys, wanna listen to”—she pulled out a CD in a blank case from her bag—“the new Haunted Harry song?”

“What? There’s a new one?”

“Yup, he debuted it at his last concert.” She flipped the case around. The back had Wilted Willows written in scribbly black sharpie.

“Man, I shoulda been there for that,” Tucker grumbled. “Being grounded blows.”

“Shouldn’t have gotten caught sneaking out last time then.”

“I wouldn’t have if you actually brought your rope ladder with you when you came to pick me up.”

“I thought you had it handled.” Sam rolled her eyes. “And who just brings a rope ladder with them everywhere they go?”

Tucker nudged the front of her backpack with his shoe. “You carry a bat in your bag all the time.”

“Yeah, but I need that.”

“For what?”

“Stuff.”

It was Tucker’s turn to roll his eyes. “Very descriptive and not suspicious at all.”

“You know, you’re getting angry with the wrong person.” She bumped shoulders with Danny. “If he’d agreed to show up, he could’ve just flown you to the venue without anyone noticing.”

“I told you guys, I was busy.” Danny walked a little ahead of them, carefully not looking at the CD still in Sam’s hand. “And I’ve heard the guy’s songs. They’re not that great.”

“‘Not that great’? He’s better than Ember!” Tucker yelled.

“Tucker, she mind controlled you.”

“That’s why he’s better!” Tucker pointed at him. “And why you should come to his next show! You’ll love it, D!” 

He looked to Sam for help, but she shook her head. “Harry’s music is really good and his genre is the kind you’d love.”

Danny groaned. “I’ll think about it, okay? But don’t get your hopes up.”

“Here,”—Sam held out the CD to him—“I’ve already listened to this album a dozen times. You can borrow it for a while. I know you’re gonna love it.”

Danny held up his hands. “I really don’t need—”

“I insist.”

“Seriously, I’d rather not—”

Sam shoved it into his chest. “Just take it.”

“Oh, do you hear that?” Danny put a hand to his ear. Sam furrowed her brows. “Sounds like a ghost attack somewhere far far away. I better get going, see ya!” He ducked behind Tucker, transformed and flew off. 

In the distance he heard Tucker say, “Ember’s songs still slap by the way!”

---

“Hey, y’know? I think I’m starting to like this.”

“Told ya, you would!”

“No, you said ‘it’ll be funny watching you flail around’ and ‘I hope your voice cracks when you’re on stage’.”

“That’s basically the same thing.”

---

“...thought I heard Ember back here,” someone’s faint voice drifted down through the vents. It was slightly distorted by the metal and the echoing, but it was familiar in some way.

Danny wasn’t really focused on that though. He was more wondering what kind of “fans” managed to A) realize Ember was helping out with setting up the stage for the show, and B) were so desperate to meet her that they were crawling through the vents.

“Oh can it, you just want to meet Haunted Harry,” another voice said.

“You can’t prove anything.” 

Well, that was. Mildly better. 

Danny turned invisible in his spot at the vanity. There, now he could just wait for them to show up, find nothing, and eventually leave. Hopefully Ember wouldn’t come back to check on him for a while.

The familiar bickering started to get a bit louder and Danny started to realize just who the people were that were arguing in the vents.

He wanted to say he expected better of them, but he couldn’t deny that he’d probably do the same.

“How are we supposed to get through this?”

“Move up, I’ll kick it open.”

Danny watched with no small amount of amusement as there was a loud bang and Sam and Tucker fell through the grate in a heap. 

“Ugh, why’d the floor have to be concrete.” Tucker groaned. 

“Get off.” Sam shoved Tucker off her. “Hurry up and look around, someone might’ve heard us.”

The two practically ransacked Danny’s dressing room. Did they not care about the stuff they’d leave behind for people to clean up? Danny was ashamed of them and not just because it was his dressing room they were messing around with, nor because he’d eventually have to clean up himself. He was just plain ashamed.

They really need to learn some manners.

“Who said that?” Sam asked. Fuck, did he say that out loud?

“Uhh, no one,” he answered, purposefully making his voice deeper.

Sam pulled out the bat from her bag—and of course it was the Fenton Anti-Creep Stick; he really needed to tell Jazz not to lend that out so frequently—and poised herself right in front of the vanity, her gaze a little too far up and to the right of him. “Alright, you can come out quietly or I can swing until I hit ectoplasm.”

“Wait, wait!” Danny turned himself visible and waved his hands. “Chill, it’s just me!” 

“Wh—Danny? Why are you—?” Tucker gasped. “You’re Haunted Harry?!” Oh fuck, he forgot he was still wearing his getup.

Danny gave a nervous laugh. “What? Me? No. I was just, uh, looking for Ember! Same as you guys.” Haha nailed it. Secondary secret identity saved.

“Then why the hell are you wearing Haunted Harry’s costume?” Sam asked. “And wearing the exact makeup he does?”

Fuck. Uhhh. “I’m undercover.”

“Why would you need to be undercover?”

Danny crossed his arms. “How else would I get back here to look for Ember?”

“Ghost powers!” Sam and Tucker shouted, with Sam staring at him unimpressed while Tucker pulled at his short hair.

“You guys are losing it. I mean, what does Haunted Harry even look like?” Wait, no. That’s not what he meant to say. “How do you know I’m wearing the exact thing he does? I heard he changes costumes all the time.” Yeah yeah. That should throw them off. 

“Which is true except you’re wearing his original costume!” Tucker grabbed the lapels of Danny’s jacket and shook him. “The one no one’s been able to replicate properly!” 

Shit. Had no one been able to figure out how to make an entire outfit glow yet? Shit shit shit. This was gonna be harder than he thought. He did his best attempt at looking confused and pitying. “Didn’t you say he’s only been around a few months? Give the fans and dedicated cosplayers a little more faith, Tuck.” The boy looked a bit put out at Danny’s words and mumbled something about having plenty of faith, but not enough glow in the dark paint. Danny patted his shoulder in sympathy.

Okay, perfect. He could still get out of this scot-free. Just one more person to convince.

“Sam—”

“You’re not convincing me otherwise, Danny.”

“It’s not ‘convincing’ if I’m totally telling the truth!”

Sam counted off on her fingers. “The sparkly white jacket. The long black tie. The fingerless gloves. Not to mention your killer eye shadow.” She crossed her arms. “You’re definitely Haunted Harry.”

“And you didn’t tell us! Us!” Tucker said, incensed as he got over his grumbling about cosplays. “Your best friends in the whole world who love your music and would literally die to meet you!”

“Yeah. Dick move, Danny,” Sam said, dumping several bottles of dark coloured nail polish into her bag as if Danny wasn’t looking straight at her. “We would’ve been supportive—”

“We woulda been so supportive! I mean, you’ve been doing this for, what? A few months? And you’re popular, but not that popular.” Tucker ranted, pacing around the room. “I coulda been your number 1 hype man! I coulda sold a bunch of backstage passes and autographed CDs to get us rich! I coulda—”

Danny slapped a hand over Tucker’s mouth. “Stop yelling at me. I only did this because I was blackmailed!”

Sam narrowed her eyes. “You were blackmailed into ‘impersonating’ a popular popstar?”

“No, I just had to—”

“Perform one song I wrote in under an hour in exchange for me keeping quiet on certain things he’s been getting up to in his spare time.” An unnaturally warm arm wrapped around his shoulders. “Ain’t that right, Dipstick?”

Fuck.

“So, it’s true?!” they both asked, sparkles in his eyes. 

“You weren’t even sure? After all that?”

Tucker shrugged. “The lights are really bright on stage and it’s not like we’ve seen Haunted Harry up close before.” Sam nodded her agreement.

Danny groaned loudly.

“So,”—Sam raised her brows—“How long have you really been doing this?”

“It was going to be just one show.” Danny dragged a hand down his face. “I honestly didn’t think it would go this long.”

“Kid took a real shine to it!” Ember said, laughing. “I was hoping to embarrass him, but instead I got myself a mentee!”

“Mentee…?” Tucker asked skeptically.

“Oh yeah, Harry here has been a real treat to train.” She ruffled his hair. Man, he just gelled that into place. “I’ve shown him a whole bunch of things and he’s been soaking up things like a sponge!”

Sam grabbed Danny’s shoulder and pulled him behind her and Tucker, who had brought out a Fenton Ecto-Gun out of nowhere. She readied her bat. “Alright, well it stops now.”

“What? Why?” Ember and Danny both asked.

“We know what you’re up to, Ember, and it’s not gonna work.” Tucker nudged Danny towards the door, whispering, “Don’t worry dude, we got it handled. You get out of here before her music mojo starts affecting you again.”

“You think she’s controlling me?” Danny asked, baffled. “To sing at a cafe every Thursday evening?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Guys, no. Ember’s not—”

“We can talk about it later when we’re far away from her.” Sam tightened her hand on the bat. “That isn’t going to be a problem, is it?” 

Ember watched them, an easy smile on her face. “Not at all, if you two want to drag your boyfriend away for a checkup, be my guest. He’s done for the night anyway.”

“Wh—But the encore!” Danny whined.

“I’ll cover you.” Danny pouted. “Oh, buck up. They’ll all be here next week. And it’ll give them something to talk about in the meantime.” She framed her hands in the air. “‘Up and coming popstar disappears before encore; seen running off with a boy and girl’ sounds like a pretty good headline to catch more attention for your shows, don’t you think?”

Danny felt a flush creep up his neck and he could see Sam and Tucker similarly suffering. “We’re not—I mean, like, it’s kinda complicated—and they don’t really—”

“A-Again, something to talk about later and not here,” Sam said pointedly. 

Tucker agreed, his shoulders up to his ears. “Yeah, uh, because I got a few things to say. Especially about—Oof.” Sam elbowed him in the gut. “Right, yeah, later.”

---

So, they left the venue. 

And, they talked on Sam’s huge bed. 

It was mostly Tucker and Sam realizing they were waiting for the other to ask Danny out and then both commiserating with each other when neither of them could do it. 

Danny was pretty stunned. 

“Why don’t we all just date each other?”

So now he was stunned with a boyfriend and girlfriend.

It would be pretty great if they didn’t still insist Ember was controlling him.

“The Danny I know would never be that good at asking people out.”

“Tuck, Ember was the one who started this whole conversation.”

“Exactly. She’s up to something.”

Danny sighed. “Sam, please. You’ve seen me under her control. You know I’d be more hopelessly lovesick than this.”

Sam hummed. “You have a point.” She lightly kicked his shin. “You really like singing, then? And she’s really been helping you?”

Danny rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m as surprised as you are. But when I got on stage for the first time—I don’t know, something just clicked.”

Tucker smiled. “Well, as long as you’re happy.”

“I am. I really am.” He felt a dopey grin spread on his face. “Almost as happy as I am that I’ve got two new partners now.” He felt a giddiness in his chest and covered his quickly warming face with a little squeal. “Holy fuck I am so fucking happy, I could kiss you guys.”

“Well?” 

He peeked out of his hands at Sam. “Well what?”

“What’s stopping you?”

He felt his face get infinitely warmer. “You can’t just say that!”

“Sure I can. If you’re too shy to go first though… Tucker?” Time seemed to slow as Danny watched Sam peck Tucker on the lips. Tucker was stiff as a board and She was beet red. “S-See? Nothing to it.”

“You’re blushing.”

“We’re all blushing.”

“And you guys are beautiful! I could watch you do that all day. Actually, I’d much rather do that instead of embarrassing myself, please continue.”

Tucker and Sam shared a look and they tackled Danny to the bed, littering his face with kisses. He sputtered and his arms flailed around for a moment before his nerves started to flutter away, carried by his laughter.

Once he’d really relaxed into the mattress, they stopped for a moment and shared another look, one that brought a deeper blush to both of their faces. 

He wasn’t quite sure what they were doing, still trying to catch his breath and giggling a bit, but it was very evident the moment Sam bent down for a more lingering kiss, her chapped lips pressed right on top of his own. 

He hardly had time to kiss back before Tucker took his turn, with lips a little more pursed, a little stiff.

It was perfect.

“I think I’ve been blessed by the Ancients,” Danny said, a warm, floaty feeling in his chest.

“Yeah,” Tucker said dreamily, his head in his hands.

Sam herself had a big smile on her face before it slipped away. “Wait a minute.” She narrowed her eyes. “What if the music Ember writes for you makes you mind control other people?”

Danny and Tucker both groaned. “Sam.”

[q-gorgeous]

Why Am I Here

fanfiction

ao3

word count: 1150

Fright Knight has been around much longer than other ghosts. He has seen a lot. And yet this seems to be the most ridiculous thing he's been a part of. @briarlovesu​

ridiculous utterly ridiculous

Fright Knight looked around him as he stood inside the throne room of the king’s castle.

“Why am I here?” 

Phil stopped putting up the streamers he held in his hand as he turned to face Fright Knight. Fright Knight didn’t know he was also a party planner. 

“I already told you, it’s Phantom’s eighteenth birthday today. We are throwing him a party.”

Fright Knight frowned at him. “I heard that part. But why am I here? I’m not particularly close with our king.”

“We are asking all his subjects to attend. We are making it into a royal ball of sorts, albeit a less serious one. Phantom has also never had a big birthday party before and the ghosts that frequent Amity Park seemed very keen on throwing him one.”

“This is ridiculous.” Fright Knight closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. 

“Here.” Phil handed him a stack of posters. “Hang these up.”

Fright Knight stared down at the face. Its eyes mocked him. 

“Why are we hanging up these pictures of Phantom?” 

“It’s an inside joke between him and his friends. Stop asking questions and help us get ready. We don’t have much time left before he gets off of school.”

Fright Knight grumbled as he walked away with the stack of papers. There were all sorts of ghosts here helping set up for the party. But this was something that was beneath him. He’d been a ghost for much longer than any of them here right now. He has seen a lot, but this? This had to take the cake for ridiculousness. 

See! Right there! That cake was huge! Why did they need a cake that big? 

Nevertheless, Fright Knight went about putting posters up. He himself had been around for a long time, but so had Phil. Phil was no ghost to trifle with, no matter how ridiculous he also was. What kind of ghost needed infinite pockets? He heard that there was still an Observant lost in there, that Phil could never find him. Fright Knight shuddered. No, he didn’t want to get on Phil’s bad side. 

He hung up the last poster and he could hear Phil clap his hands together. 

“I believe we’re done! Now we just have to shut off all the lights and wait for him to arrive.”

Fright Knight furrowed his eyebrows. “Wait, does he not know we’re doing this?”

Phil waved him off. “It’ll be fine. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go get his friends so they’re here when we surprise him.” He disappeared into thin air. 

Fright Knight stood around while he waited for Phil to come back. The rest of the ghosts were hanging out together as they put on the finishing touches for the decorations and food. Fright Knight was about to join them when Phil reappeared by his side with four other people.

“Phil!” Fright Knight clutched his chest. 

“Sorry, Fright Knight.”

Phantom’s friends all groaned. One clutched his stomach and sank to the ground. They all looked sort of nauseous. 

“I wanted to throw a surprise party for Danny but is it even worth it anymore?” A boy in a beret whined. “I feel so sick.”

“Suck it up- you nerds.” The tall blonde one said as he gagged, also very clearly trying not to throw up. 

“When is Danny supposed to get here again?” Said the gothic looking girl. Fright Knight liked her style. 

“I think he-” The red haired one started but she got cut off.

“He’s coming! We can see him flying through the zone!” 

The lights in the throne room dimmed and everyone got into position. No one told him where he was supposed to stand so he just went invisible where he was standing in the middle of the room. 

Phantom finally flew into the throne room, landing on the floor.

“Phil? Are you here? What time is that meeting at? And why’s it so dark in here?”

“Surprise!” Everyone leapt out from their hiding places, Fright Knight just turned visible again, and the lights came back on. 

Phantom jumped, startled. “Ah!” 

An ectoblast flew from Phantom’s hand and hit his friend who wore the beret in the stomach. It knocked him down on his back and he groaned.

“Why is it always me? I didn’t even go in for a high five that time!” 

“Tucker?” Phantom took a moment to look around then. He took in the decorations and the cake and all of the people who were gathered in the throne room. “Wait, did you guys throw me a birthday party?” 

“You betcha!” Phantom’s blonde haired friend walked up to him. “Phil here is an expert party planner!” 

Phantom looked at Phil. “How did he keep track of the notes and dates for this? He’s always losing everything.”

“I used the whiteboard that you hung up in my room, your majesty.”

“I knew that would come in handy!” Phantom cheered. 

The other ghosts that frequented Amity Park walked up to Phantom and his friends.

“You guys are here too?” 

“We wanted to do something special for you, babypop!” Ember smiled at Phantom.

“Aw!” Phantom smiled at Ember. 

“We heard about how you’ve never had a big birthday party and we thought that was sad and so here we are to rectify it.” 

“Aw.” Phantom’s smile turned into a frown. 

“But we also haven’t gotten to hang out with you in awhile. Since you banned ghost attacks in Amity Park and all, we can’t just go and have a friendly battle and hang out.”

“Yeah. ‘Friendly battle’.” Phantom air quoted. “But I appreciate the sentiment.” 

Phantom then took his time to go talk to each of the ghosts that had helped put the party together. Eventually he made his way to where Fright Knight stood alone in the middle of the throne room. 

“Hi, Fright Knight. Were you also super excited to throw me a birthday party like the rest of the weirdos here?”

“No. I was forced to participate.” 

Phantom looked appalled. “Why are you here if you didn’t want to be?”

Fright Knight shrugged. “Phil made me. I didn’t want to risk getting lost in his pockets like that Observant did a couple years ago.”

Phantom sighed. “Well even if you were forced to be here, I appreciate you coming. You can go if you want.”

Fright Knight nodded. “I will grab a slice of cake and be on my way.”

Once Fright Knight got his cake, he flew out and away from the castle. Such a ridiculous thing, celebrating birthdays. Most of those people there were dead! Why did they care when Phantom was born?

It must be a young ghost thing. He didn’t even remember when his birthday nor his death day was. 

But maybe birthdays could be nice. He did get this slice of cake after all.

[wolfjackle-creates]

Danny stepped into the portal.

"Turn around so I can take your picture!" called Sam.

"Just a minute!" Danny looked up at the impressive feat of engineering and tried to see how it all went together. Maybe he could make it work?

Which is why he didn't notice the giant cable before he was falling. He reached out to catch himself and screamed as electricity tore through his body.

He was burning. From the inside out. He felt his flesh char, his heart stop.

And, in the space between seconds, memories flashed through his mind.

His parents, flying through the air against the bright circus lights. Them falling and gone. Searching out Zucco to kill him and correct the wrongs.

Being found by Batman before he could. Putting on his parents' colors and flying through the night once more. Reclaiming the name his mother gave him.

Meeting Superman and the other heroes. Joining his own team, leading his own team. Fighting with Bruce and putting away his parents' colors and his mother's name because they were no longer just his.

Returning home to find someone else had taken them up.

Then the white masks. The black robes of the leader. Being trained to kill, to warp the lessons he'd learned as Dick. Being called a failure and strapped down to a hard table.

He fell forward and took a shuddering breath. All he could hear was ringing. His muscles spasmed, but the pain was receding.

He looked up and was faced with two strangers. He closed his eyes and shook his head. He wasn't Dick. He wasn't the Talon.

"...ny, Danny!"

He was Danny. He opened his eyes again and recognized Sam and Tucker. They were crying.

"Sam? Tucker?"

Facing the truth of his accident was hard. His powers were proof that his parents weren't crazy, that ghosts—or something like them—existed.

Learning to control them was even harder when he had no idea what powers he was supposed to have.

He had even less of an idea of what to do about his unlocked memories. He was a clone. Of Nightwing, formerly Robin. He had his memories. He knew the identities of half the Justice League.

If he could control his new powers, though, not even the Court would be able to keep hold of him. But he needed control first. Then he could decide what to do.

Only, before that could happen, a ghost attacked. Danny wanted to run and never look back. He was just a kid!

But there was another part of him. A part called Dick who ran into the night in bright colors to fix what was wrong in the world. Who was raised by Batmam to defend and protect.

Danny stood his ground and Sam and Tucker stayed with him.

And after that there was another ghost. Then another. Jazz learned and stuck by him just as Sam and Tucker had.

He made stronger enemies, but also some friends. And his life fell into a routine. He was needed in Amity.

So he kept putting off trying to deal with the memories the portal unlocked. He shoved them down and pretended they didn't exist. And if only half of his nightmares were about ghost attacks? No one needed to know.

If he followed the news stories about the Waynes or the Justice League more closely than his classmates? It was just another weird obsession from the weird Fenton kid. But he watched as more bats and birds were seen in Gotham. As the large, empty manor he remembered from Dick's childhood welcomed more and more people. And he tried not to wonder if he would've been welcome there. If he wouldn't have to hide if he lived there.

Then the day came when his parents found out. He was a senior, months away from graduating, when he had to flee with nothing but a go bag and a blaster shot wound in the side.

He stopped only once to bandage himself up, then flew to Bludhaven and Gotham. The only other place on Earth he thought he could turn into a home. Or where he hoped he could at least find an ally to help him get back to the Realms. Perhaps it'd be best if he just gave up pretending he still had a place among the living.

It took him two days to find Dick and invisibly follow him back to his apartment. He followed him inside the building just closely enough to see which apartment he entered before leaving.

He left and transformed back into a human. In the bathroom of a fast food place, he changed into the cleanest clothes he had.

Then he returned to Dick's apartment. He did allow himself to bypass the security on the front gate, but he knocked properly on Dick's door.

He could hear his template approach and a long silence. Danny smiled self-consciously at the peep hole and held up his hands to show he had no weapons.

The door opened, but only an inch. The security chain still held and Danny had no doubt Dick had armed himself.

"Who are you?" Dick demanded.

Danny took a deep breath. He only had one shot at this. "I'm not here to hurt you or our— your family. I— my name is Danny. I was cloned from Dick Grayson by the Court of Owls nine years ago. I was made with the purpose of becoming the Talon to kill Batman, but I failed my training. They wiped my memories and abandoned me in the middle of nowhere where a couple found me and took me in. I wouldn't have come here, but I need help and I've no place else to go." Danny smiled awkwardly and shifted from foot to foot. If this didn't work... Both his parents and the GIW were after him and he had no access to a portal. He didn't know how long he'd survive.

Another beat of silence, then the door closed. Danny felt his eyes burning and turned to go, until he heard it open again, this time all the way. Dick was standing there, escrima sticks in hand and eyes narrowed in distrust, but gesturing him to enter.

"You'd better come in, then."

With shaking legs, Danny entered another doorway that would change his life forever.

-----

I don't know enough about the Court of Owls to continue this, I'm afraid, so if anyone else wants to take a crack at it, go ahead. But it's a oneshot on my end. Hope you enjoy!

Short DPXDC Prompts #850

Danny is a failed clone of Dick by the Court of Owls. Erasing his memory, they threw him out onto the world where he eventually got adopted by the Fentons. If the portal accident somehow knocked loose the mental block hiding his memories… Who knows what could happen. 

[five-rivers]

Flight Simulation

Phic Phight phill phor @charcoalhawk (Prompt:AU where Danny never realizes he can shoot ectoblasts or has any other kind of ‘extra’ powers besides invisibility, possession, and the ability of phase through solid objects.  (PR212))

Flight Simulation

Danny cringed as the thermos shot out of the mouth of the ghost weasel and hit the portal door’s ‘open’ button.  Him accidentally hitting buttons on the portal was going to be a thing now, apparently.  Along, apparently, with disastrous consequences.  

The surface of the portal rippled, then bulged ever so slightly before the swirling blue-green surface broke, disgorging a ghost.  The ghost had green skin, mad scientist hair, eyes that seemed to have been replaced with glass rectangles, and… no legs?  What–?

All thoughts about the ghost’s legs or lack thereof were discarded as the ghost, instead of proceeding forward as expected, went up.  

Danny felt his Sure, the Lunch Lady had hovered and floated meat around her, and Skulker had his jetpack, but this was different.  This was someone actually flying.  Defying gravity and moving around freely with no perceptible effort.

“Child!” crowed the ghost. “You have freed me, Technus, ghost master of science and electrical tech–”

“YOU CAN FLY?!” 

Danny was so jealous he thought he might go insane.  

“Well, yes, I–”

“THAT’S GARBAGE!  THAT’S UNFAIR!  HOW COME YOU GET TO FLY?  I WANT TO FLY!”  Danny thought he deserved to be able to fly after all the nonsense he’d been subjected to since he’d walked into the portal with the misguided desire to help his parents and walked out with the ability to turn into a ghost.  

A flightless ghost.  

“I…” said Technus, raising a gloved finger, “am a ghost?”

Danny, no longer caring if his dad came back and saw, transformed.  “SO AM I!”

“Huh,” said Technus.  

Danny, the edges of his vision going green, put his hands in his hair.  “I only get to fly in video games… so unfair… Mom won’t let me get the good flight simulator… terrible graphics card… Doomed nerfed levitation… doesn’t work right on the computer… can’t get a flying license… won’t even let me test drive the Speeder…”  Danny realized that he’d started pacing and gesticulating during his rant, and also that he’d taken his eyes off the ghost.  

He spun.  Technus, however, was still there, regarding Danny with a somewhat quizzical expression.  At least, Danny thought it was quizzical.  Those glass-rectangle eyes were admittedly hard to read.  

“Video… games?”

“Yeah,” said Danny, “like on a computer?  Aren’t you supposed to be master of tech or something?  Shouldn’t you know what a video game is?”

The expression on Technus’s face told Danny that he maybe shouldn’t have said that.  

“Excellent idea!  Have you ever considered tutoring?”

“Tutoring?  What?” asked Danny, thinking, for a moment, that Technus knew that Jazz was tutoring Dash upstairs and feeling displaced.

“As a TA!”

That ranked high on the list of the least sensical things Danny had ever been told.  “I’m a C student.”

“Ah, well, I must go master these video games you speak of!  Farewell, ghost child!”

Technus flew up through the ceiling.  Danny, not being able to fly, watched him uselessly.  

“Crud.”

.

Danny looked at the invitation to Dash’s party and sighed, letting his head hit the table.  Tucker poked him with a straw still in its wrapper.  

“Are you okay?  Just, I would have thought you’d be all over this.”  He flicked the invitation with the straw.  

“Yeah,” agreed Sam.  “Not that we aren’t glad you’re not, but are you okay?”

Danny shrugged.  “I’m just… worried.  That ghost was more like Lunch Lady or Skulker than the animal ones we usually handle, plus, I can’t fight him like the Lunch Lady.  He can just fly away.  He has air superiority.”

“You couldn’t fight Skulker like the Lunch Lady, either,” said Tucker, gesturing with a fry.  

“Let’s be honest,” said Danny.  “You and Delilah beat Skulker.  I was very much the damsel in distress.”

“Well,” said Tucker, preening, “if you insist on giving me the credit…”

“Don’t your parents have long range weapons?” asked Sam.

“Eh,” said Danny, lifting his head to make a face.  “Sort of.  Dad’s aiming skills make any sort of accuracy sort of meaningless, and Mom likes her hand-to-hand weapons.  There’s some stuff that’ll reach across a room alright, but nothing like a rifle.”

“What about that stupid big thing?” asked Tucker.  

“The bazooka?” asked Danny, doubtfully.  “They’re still working on that.  Right now, they’re still mostly focusing on capture and containment, but you know how they are.”

They all stared at their food for a long minute.  Danny shivered, as if to shake off the memory of his father chasing him through the halls of Casper High while the Lunch Lady raged outside.  

“Anyway,” said Sam, “maybe we should test out some more of the weapons we do have access to.  That ghost’ll show up eventually, right?”

“Probably,” said Danny, not looking forward to it.  

“I can keep an eye on things in the online gaming community, instead,” said Tucker.  “Make sure he isn’t doing anything on there.”

“Right,” said Sam, “because that’s such a hardship.”

“We must all make sacrifices for the greater good,” said Tucker, melodramatically.  

Danny smiled and nodded, then sighed again, his eyes falling on the invitation once more.  “I really wanted to go,” he said.  “I’m never going to get a chance like this again.”

“Come on, look on the bright side,” said Tucker.  “You were never going to get the money to do the dress code, anyway.”

“Yeah,” said Sam.  “Who makes a dress code for a high school house party anyway?  Doesn’t that sound insane to you?”

Danny picked at the napkin.  “My bar for insane is pretty high.”

Sam and Tucker exchanged glances, then shrugged.  “Fair enough,” they said.  

.

“Hey, Danny,” said Tucker.  

“Yeah?” said Danny, standing on his tip-toes to reach the box on the top shelf in the shed.  If only he could just fly up and reach it.  

On the other hand, he was currently in a shed full of defunct ghost hunting equipment searching for something useful, so maybe it was a good thing he couldn’t fly.  He wouldn’t be tempted to transform.

“What did you say that guy’s name was?”

“Called himself Technus, master of electronics and tech, or something like that.  Why?”  

“Well, there’s a guy in here with the username “Technus, ghost master of sci.””

“Just sci?”

“I guess the rest of his name was too long,” said Tucker.  “But he’s apparently tearing up the online leaderboards on Flyboy 3.”

Danny shot Tucker an incredulous look.  “Are you serious?”

“Yeah,” said Tucker, “and he seems to be picking up slang as he goes along… and he’s really bad at it.  Oh my gosh, this man should not have been left to talk to trolls, he has no idea what he’s saying.  Oh, that’s foul.”

Danny rested his head on the shelf in front of him.  “I hate this.  I hate that this is my life now.  I hate the knowledge that this is the afterlife I have to look forward to.”

“I don’t know,” said Tucker.  “I’d say this is pretty mild, all things considered.  Maybe he’s a good ghost?”

Danny swallowed back the trained reaction, the one impressed on him by his parents, by repetition, despite his disbelief in their entire worldview.  What did that make him?  

He pushed the thought back, to the box of self-doubt he’d built in the back of his mind.  But as he pushed, the thought snagged on something else and he paused.  

“Hey, Tucker,” said Danny.  

“Oh, no,” said Tucker.  

“Tucker.  Tucker.  The only good ghost is a dead one, Tucker.”

“No, man, that’s horrible.  Friendship revoked.”

.

The shed was a bust, as far as functional, safe equipment went (Danny didn’t want to recount how many times he’d been shocked; better him than Sam or Tucker).  Danny also didn’t have the cash handy to pay for Flyboy 3, or, frankly, an internet speed that would let him play competitively.  This left one option with regards to Technus:  Stalk him online.  

Luckily, they were teenagers, and Tucker was, not to brag, a tech genius, so this was relatively easy.  This did not help Danny’s anxiety over a ghost being loose on the internet, and he fretted over it all week, even as he avoided Dash and his increasing aggression regarding the party.  

(Danny was starting to get a bad feeling about missing the party.  Would Dash consider it an insult if Danny didn’t go?  How much of a beating was Danny destined for come Monday?)

“Look,” said Sam, on Friday.  “I wouldn’t usually do this, but my place has a pretty good gaming setup, and I can get Flyboy 3.  You guys can come over tomorrow and we can do some surveillance.  Make sure he isn’t cursing people to death via a questionable airplane battle simulator.”

“Oh,” said Tucker, “that’s what you’ve been hinting at all week.”

“I haven’t been hinting anything.”

“Uh huh.  Sure,” said Tucker, his smile incredibly smug.

“You’ve been hinting at something?” asked Danny.  

Tucker snickered and Sam rolled her eyes.  She might have been blushing, but her makeup made it hard to tell.  

“I haven’t been hinting at anything.  Just let me give you my address and show up, okay?”

.

Sam had given him the wrong address.  

She must have.  He didn’t think it was on purpose, though he didn’t know how someone, anyone, much less Sam could make a mistake with their address like this.  It had to be a mistake.  There was no way she lived here.  This neighborhood was way too high income.  

Danny felt inadequate just standing on the sidewalk.  Even Dash didn’t live in this neighborhood.  

He reached the specific house indicated by the address, winced, and turned to leave… only to see Tucker walking up the street, shoulders hunched.  

“You, too?” asked Danny.  

“Yeah,” said Tucker, looking enormously uncomfortable.  “I think- Maybe we should go back and call her?”

“Yeah,” said Danny.  “That’s probably a good idea.  I think my place is closer.”

Tucker nodded, “Yeah, let’s–”

The front door of the mansion opened.  “Good, you guys are here.  Follow me before Mom and Dad change their minds.”

“Oh,” said Tucker.  “That doesn’t sound great.  They know I’m going to be here, right?  This isn’t, like, a surprise thing?”

“They know you’re going to be here and who you are,” said Sam.  “They’ve just been weird about me being goth.  Also, I think they ran background checks on both of you.”

“Yeah,” said Tucker, climbing the steps and craning his head back.  “That checks out.  Man, Sam.  You’re loaded.”

.

Flyboy 3 was fun.  Really fun.  Danny maybe should have expected this.  It was a top of the line game, even though it wasn’t the best actually simulating real-world planes and flight capability.  

Climbing the leaderboards to a point where they could feasibly interact with Technus wasn’t easy.  Danny was somewhat chagrined to find that Sam was his match, and Tucker was even more chagrined to find out he wasn’t.  

“Now,” said Sam, rotating the joystick easily, “if this was Doomed, I’d be kicking your butt, too, ghost boy.”

Tucker looked up from his computer almost tearfully.  “No,” he said, “you two have the muscle and the cash, if you take tech from me, too, all I’ll have left are my good looks.”

“You’re so dramatic.  Just because I can play video games and type in a cheat code or two doesn’t mean I can code.  All I’ve got going for me is that my parents are rich.”

“A modern day Tony Stark.”

“No.  Ew.  Pay attention to your game, I can hear you crashing.”

Danny snickered and hit the ‘match’ button again.  He was getting closer to Technus, but, honestly, he was starting to relax, too.  Maybe, just maybe, Technus was also just having fun.  

The computer binged.  Danny was matched with Technus.  

The screen flickered, dissolved into static, then bulged, the surface forming a green face, eyes, and a pair of hands.  Danny pushed backwards, hard, upending his chair.  Sam and Tucker threw themselves away from their shared table as well.  

“Ghost child!” said Technus, spreading his hands wide.  “I have indeed mastered the art of the ‘gaming,’ and have become ‘hip’ and ‘with it.’  Now, I shall prove to you that I’ve got the eye of the tiger, and am a superior opponent!”

Technus seized Danny by the shoulders and dragged him into the computer screen.  

The next thing Danny knew, he was in a cockpit branded with the Flyboy 3 logo.  Outside, in front of him, was either a really good replica of Flyboy’s ‘Jungle’ runway, or something far worse.  

Judging by how Danny’s life tended to play out, he’d put his money on ‘worse.”

Technus cackled in his ear, and Danny’s hands flew up.  He was wearing a helmet, complete with headphones.  

“I wasn’t sure if that would work!”  Technus cackled some more.  “So, ghost child, are you ready for a real fight?”

.

In retrospect, after he’d gotten out, what bothered Danny the most about the whole thing, more than getting sucked into a video game, was that he hadn’t even been sucked into the actual computer.  Technus had pulled him through the monitor, which, admittedly, was connected to the computer.  

But in the moment, what bothered him the most was the g-force he experienced as he sharply banked away from Technus’s gunfire.  

Danny had yet to wing Technus at all, and, having to figure out the controls on the fly, he was at a distinct disadvantage.  He’d managed to pull the plane into intangibility a few times, but that had left him breathing hard and seeing double, something he couldn’t really afford.  The plane was really too big for someone who could barely manage to take his friends through a wall with him.  

His plane clipped off the top of one of the taller trees, sending branches to the ground, and Danny desperately tried to gain height before he realized the significance of what had just happened.  

So, with him and Technus here, this world didn’t entirely stick to the video game’s rules.  Danny had run into trees in the game before, and they had never taken any real damage.  Of course, the game didn’t have things like g-force or real correlation between animated controls and what the plane was doing, either, much less intangibility.  But if Danny could do things he could do in the real world that he couldn’t do in the game here…  And if things from the game existed that didn’t in the real world…

Danny punched in the Easter Egg code to release fireworks.  Usually, this just resulted in a harmless, colorful firework animation around the planes, but here, well, fireworks were explosives, and they tended to be both bright and loud.  

As expected, Technus veered off, and so did Danny.  But Danny’s veer had another purpose: bringing Technus into his sights.  He fired.  

The fireball in front of him was satisfying, the ‘Victory!’ screen even more so.  

Danny abruptly found himself ejected from (sigh) the computer monitor.  

“Danny!”

Dude!”

“Are you okay?” asked Sam and Tucker, finish the last at the same time and nearly colliding with each other as they ran for Danny.

“Um,” said Danny.  

“It seem that video games still have much to teach me about the funky fresh ways of the future,” said Technus’s voice, solemn but slightly raspy and still very loud through the speaker.  “Until we meet again, ghost child!”

The computer screen returned to normal, displaying the ‘Victory!’ screen and Danny’s ascent to the top 100 leaderboard for Flyboy 3.  

“Oh no,” said Danny, lacking the energy to get up.  “We’re going to have to deal with him again, aren’t we?”

[redrobin-detective]

the only ghost in Amity Park

Continuation of Half Of

______________________________________________

Only in Amity Park did the revelation that a local teenager was sorta, kinda a ghost just blow over in a few days. Sure, people still stared at Danny Fenton as he walked by and everyone was still wondering what exactly he was, but overall life had moved on. Star sighed to herself as she organized her notebooks, waiting for class to begin. Just another day.

Star herself really didn’t want to get involved in whatever was going on with Danny. She didn’t like him before he was a celebrity and didn’t plan on starting anytime soon. While Paulina still relentlessly, and vainly, pumped him for information on her dead boy crush, Phantom and he and Dash formed some weird macho bond or whatever, Star avoided him. He’d given her the chills since the day he’d walked into Casper High. When Danny’s secret had been exposed mid-attack, Star hadn’t been surprised. She didn’t need some ghost to tell her that there was something deeply, unsettlingly wrong with Danny Fenton.

Danny didn’t seem particular bothered, by his inhuman nature or by suddenly having his secret exposed. If anything, the nerd looked more relaxed than ever. Star had been watching him, they all had, but Fenton kept his ghostly antics to a minimum when in public. The occasional flash of green eyes when emotional, a grin of sharpened teeth. He made Mikey’s locker lock intangible the other day when the kid had forgotten his combination and he floated down the stairs instead of walking sometimes. It had been a week and it was  frightening how quickly such strangeness had become almost normal. 

“Alright kids, phones and notes away we’re starting class with a pop quiz. Hope you’ve all kept up with your weekly readings,” Faluca announced cheerily. The whole class, including Fenton, moaned and packed up their bags. Star supposed being an undead being haunting his own life didn’t make him immune from normal human problems. She was biting her lip trying to remember which antibody caused allergic reactions when she got an uneasy feeling. She looked up and was not surprised to see Danny Fenton looking around too. It had been a solid week without ghost attacks, looks like Fenton’s supposed vacation time was up.

Star stopped her writing and adjusted the bag at her feet to prep for evacuation. She briefly wondered what Fenton would do, what he could do? Did he also hunt ghosts, like his parents? Like Phantom? There were no blasts, no screams, no monologues but the dread increased when a ghost shield descended over them. Actually, it looked like it was just covering their classroom. Now everyone was looking up from their quizzes and out the window at the flickering, green shield.

“You’d think the administration would’ve warned me we were going to do a drill,” Faluca said but his voice was hesitant. Clearly this wasn’t planned so despite the lack of alarms, there was a good chance this was real. “Pencils down for the moment while I figure out what’s going on.”

“Mr. Faluca, I need to go,” Danny said, raising his hand. Star was so used to hearing the request she almost ignored him but the dread curling in her stomach made her look again. His face was pinched, sharp and his eyes burned with an icy fury like a sudden storm blowing in without warning. 

“Mr. Fenton, I don’t think...” Faluca murmured uneasily. Danny frowned harder.

“It wasn’t a request, actually,” Danny said roughly as he stood up and began walking towards the door. He was almost there when the door slammed open and Fenton had no less than 3 ectoweapons pointed in his face. A few kids jumped back in alarm but Danny held his ground as half a dozen Guys in White agents entered the room and surrounded him.

“Spectral scum formerly known as Daniel Fenton, you’re coming with us,” one of the agents said. 

“Danny not Daniel and it’s still my name,” Danny quipped, eyeing each of the government officials and their weapons. “And no, I’m not. I’m still alive, somewhat anyway, so I have rights. The courts backed me up.”

“Everyone who signed for your freedom doesn’t know ghosts like we do,” Another agent said so forcefully, some spittle flew out of their mouth and hit Danny’s cheek. Star watched it freeze and fall away the instant it hit his skin. “Your kind are too dangerous to wander around, you need to be contained and eliminated. Don’t worry, your parents will receive a sizable check as recompense.”

“I’m the one who needs to be contained?” Danny said slowly, evenly but there was a static to his voice that caused the hairs on the back of Star’s neck to rise. When she breathed out, she saw her breath was misting. Everyone’s was as the room temperature continued to plummet. “When you come in here and take hostages to threaten me?” Danny hissed, he took a step forward and his eyes took on a neon green glow. “You didn’t come to my home or on the streets, you came to take me in the middle of biology when I’m surrounded by civilians, kids.”

“You delude yourself into thinking you’re still human,” another agent scoffed. “Everyone knows ghosts are weaker when giving into their obsession.” Danny laughed, it was loud and mocking and like fingernails running down a chalkboard. Faluca, stuck in between Danny and the agents, was white as a sheet and gripping his desk like it was the only thing keeping him from collapsing.

“You know nothing,” Danny hissed, his voice barely recognizable as human. His hair and shirt floated in an invisible but angry breeze. Frost crawled up his arms and his face. Various ecto alarms were ringing on the belts of the agents and they started to look a bit nervous. He looked nothing like the kid who, minutes before, had clearly been struggling with their bio quiz. “You have no idea what you’re dealing with. You cannot come into my haunt and threaten my people to get to me. Protecting what is mine will always make me stronger!” 

“This whole town is constantly under attack because of things like you!” One particularly brave agent said even as a few others had backed up. “Amity Park is on the verge of collapse because of all the ghosts!”

“There is only one ghost in Amity Park,” Danny said, he tilted his head, his black and white hair dangling in his face as he gave a sharpened smile. “There is only me and the ghosts I allow, ghosts who know the rules, who respect my authority here by keeping damage to people and property down. I am the only ghost haunting this town and why do you think that is?” One agent threw down his gun and ran through the open door.

“You’re-you’re a monster!” Another woman shouted, shaking as she stepped back before fleeing.

“I’m not the one who needs to threaten innocents to get to their target,” Danny sneered. “It’s a good thing you did though, I wouldn’t hold back if I wasn’t worried about collateral.” Another three agents turned tail and ran. Until there was only one left. His gun was still trained on Danny but his hands were shaking. 

“You don’t scare us,” the agent trembled through the obvious lie having been abandoned by his comrades. “We’ll get you monster, if it’s the last thing we do.”

“Looking forward to it,” Danny drawled sarcastically as some of his horrifying aura dissipated along with the freezing grip on the room. Within moments Danny has settled back into more human form. While he’d been angry before, now he looked almost bored. At no point had he seemed afraid. 

“You take your people and your equipment and you leave Amity’s borders by sunset tonight,” Danny declared resolutely. “If you have continued problems with my existence, you take it up with the courts. We settle this as humans but if you treat me as a ghost then I will fight back like one.” His eyes turned green again as a threat. As a promise. 

“I don’t take orders from spooks!” The agent shouted, securing his finger on the trigger and preparing to fire. Star had ducked to avoid the blast so she missed exactly what happened. All she saw was the green glow and heard a strangled scream from the agent followed by a series of thumps. By the time Star had gotten back into her seat, Danny was aggressively pulling apart the ectogun with his bare hands. There was no sign of the agent and, around them, the ghost shield fizzled away. 

“Jerks,” Danny grumbled, kicking at the remains of the ectogun he’d destroyed. “Sorry about that, Mr. Faluca. I knew they’d cause problems but I didn’t think they’d come to school.” Their teacher stared at Danny like a rabbit facing down a lion. “You okay?”

“Fine, Mr. Fenton, just fine!” Falcua grinned in a high pitched voice. “Shall we get back to our quizzes?” The bell rang just then and Danny did a little fist pump.

“Tomorrow then? After I get a chance to study more?” Danny asked with puppy dog eyes. It looked wrong on his face that had just threatened the government with bodily harm. Faluca just nodded dumbly, not sure what else to say. “Yes! I’ll pass tomorrow for sure. The attention kinda sucks but it does come with some perks.”

He walked back to his desk, ignoring the wide-eyed looks of the class when he stopped and gasped, his breath fogging in front of him. His lips pursed again with annoyance. A few people jumped in surprise as the Box Ghost, a familiar annoyance, poked his head through the wall.

“Child! Your requested reprieve is up and the Box Ghost is here to cause insurmountable square shenanigans!” He laughed heartily, stopping when the room temperature dropped again. Danny didn’t even turn to face the ghost. 

“Your watch is off, Boxy. I have another 10 hours before I have to deal with you annoyances again,” Danny growled. “I’m feeling good right now, take advantage of it and leave in one piece.”

“Uh right okay then,” the ghost stammered, sinking back into the wall. “See you tomorrow.” Danny cracked his neck before he walked to his desk, grabbed his things and walked to the front of the room.

“Late bell’s gonna ring any minute, you guys should hurry if you don’t wanna be late,” Danny said as he left. Falcua’s strength gave out as soon as Fenton was gone and he hit the floor, one hand clutching at his chest.

“Jeepers,” Mikey surmised appropriately before stuffing his things in his bag and leaving as well. Star watched everyone loosen up themselves and begin gathering their things to leave. No, she would never like Danny Fenton but he and his ghost weirdness was just part of the deal now, whether they wanted it or not. Such was life in the most haunted city in America which was only haunted by a single ghostly entity.

[achilios]

out of context quotes that are (a) hilarious (b) ominous (c) both at once (from survival is a talent by @shanastoryteller )

(years 4-5, potential spoilers ahead?? maybe?? i’ll add an asterisk (*) to quotes that i think may be spoilers)

( * = possibly a spoiler ; ** = mild spoiler ; *** = kind of a big spoiler )

this was originally supposed to be for harry only, because his character in this fic is absolutely amazing and sarcastic and generally hilarious, but then the list somehow Grew, so!

harry:

"Millicent, thank merlin, has a trust fund and that’s it, and thinks the rest of them are insane[...]she’s a great barometer for when something’s a pureblood Slytherin thing, and for when their friends are just strange, but haven’t figured it out yet because they’re too busy being strange together."

"'I’ll meet you downstairs,' Harry says, then stands and jumps off the roof. George screams, but Harry’s laughing all the way down, casting a cushioning charm so he easily bounces back on his feet."

"'But it doesn’t bother me when I almost die,' Harry complains."

"I might as well cause a useful disaster."

* "Sometimes accidental necromancy just happens.”

"'Ritualistic cannibalism is my least preferred way to die,” Harry tells him companionably."

"Who cares if it’s a good idea? It’s a fun idea."

"She looks at Harry. “Can you walk, Mr. Potter?”“Sure,” he says, “absolutely, I’ve been walking for years.”"

"They all look at him like he’s crazy. Which isn’t a new experience, but is a little rude."

* "he’s planning to spend the summer collecting corpses so he has them on hand if needed."

+ bonus

Sirius saying Questionable Things, as always: "'I love that woman,' Sirius says, 'She’s so willing sell her morals away, I really admire that in a person.'"

Ron, who i’m kind of obsessed with(+ an appearance from Ginny): "'What are you planning, Ronald?' 'Nothing major. Just some public unrest, maybe a riot or two. A coup would be nice, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves,' he muses."

"'I flew a car into the Whomping Willow when I was twelve,' Ron says. 'How am I supposed to discipline students? As long as no one dies, it’s like, fine, right?'"

"“Hey!” Ron says, but he’s still grinning. “I think we make really logical and great choices for authority figures.” Harry twists to stare at him. “A third year got in a fight with a Hufflepuff, and you taught him how to throw a better punch.”"

Neville, who is awesome: "No election if we kill him."

"“Yippee,” Neville says morosely"

Hermione, who is somehow both chaotic good and lawful neutral at once: "'I won’t have to scold anyone for anything if they don’t get caught,' Hermione answers. 'Perhaps everyone should take this as an opportunity to brush up on their invisibility and silencing spells?'"

* "Hermione pulls out her wand. “It’s sad you’ll forget this moment. You’re a lot less pathetic when you grow a spine.”"

Draco, who I can’t even put into words how much I love in this fic: *** "Draco strides into Flitwick’s office and drops a ten foot scroll on his desk with a satisfying thwack. Flitwick looks up and raises an eyebrow. “That’s the complete arithmancy for the ghost summoning spell. Read it and weep, because I did.”"

"“Yeah, okay. I was personally planning to hex anyone who hit on you or stared at you too long, but I suppose your idea is a little more subtle.”"

"Murder suddenly sounds like a much more appealing option."

* "if it’s alive, we’ll come get you so we can – I don’t know, kill an millennia old creature in the middle of the night for the hell of it, I guess."

"“I have so much homework to do that I’ve considered taking up drinking to cope,”"

"Forget therapy. Draco needs a drink."

Quinn, because ze is amazing and I want to make potions explode with zir: "“My dad threw a fit when I accidentally melted the shed outside,” Quinn complains, “Like we all haven’t accidentally liquified a building or two.”"

** "Quinn leans forward, making sure to look him in the eye. “Tell me Harry. Have you ever wanted to lead an unofficial teenage militia? Because I think that would look great on your resume.”"

"“If you finish that sentence I’ll have to kill you, and that will really bum a lot of people out,”"

Seamus and Dean, who count as one person and are practically joined at the hip: "Seamus smacks his shoulder, “Ze has a boyfriend.” There’s a pause where they all stare at him, and then he goes, “Wait, and you have a boyfriend too! Me! No leering at Quinn.”"

Percy, who is entirely too relatable sometimes: "“I have to go,” he says, “and I don’t know, maybe develop a drinking problem or something.”"

This Scene:

I’m not even sure I understand what’s happening here, but I love it

This Scene As Well:

"Ron sighs and puts his arm around Harry’s shoulders. “Harry, murder is bad.”

“Most of the time,” Hermione says. Ron glares at her. “What? Sometimes a little murder can be helpful.”

He turns to Neville, beseeching, but he only shrugs. “Murder is bad almost all of the time.”"

Other Characters, who are equally amazing but admittedly less important to the story so far, so they don’t get individual sections: "“Angelina!” Katie scolds, even though she’s angry too. “Don’t admit to murder in front of so many witnesses.”"

" “I’ll keep watch. Have fun down there. I hope you die.”"

*** "“What is idiotic master needing from his lowly house elf, who is clearly so unimportant that he can not be telling her when he goes running off to do stupid things?” “Er,” he says, “look, Winky, it all happened really fast, and we were on a bit of time crunch-” “Ah, yes,” she says, “because it is taking so long to be summoning me, with a literal snap of your fingers.”"

[lexosaurus]

Invisobang: Morge pt 2

It was a beautiful day outside. The birds were singing, the flowers were blooming...a corpse was found in the woods.

Or, Amity Park's local cadaver dog trainer was walking her dog in the woods when they discovered a little surprise waiting for them six feet under.

Pairings: none WC: 9886 read on: [ao3] part 2 of 2, read: [part 1]

---

some amazing accompanying art by @ghostkiin

---

“It’s like you’re not even trying!” Plasmius barked, throwing Danny an exaggerated yawn while blocking the ectoblasts thrown his way. “Really, Daniel, you were always woefully incapable compared to me, but this is just abysmal, even for you.”

Danny gritted his teeth and glared back, allowing his glowing eyes to glare to toxic levels. Plasmius picked the wrong week to try to steal blueprints from Fentonworks.

“What, are you going to hit me with a little ectoblast again?”

“Oh I’ll show you an ectoblast,” Danny growled, charging ectoplasm in his palms so concentrated that the green glowed a fierce white. He flung his hands out, releasing the energy with a venomous, “eat shit, Fruitloop!”

But just like the rest of his life, his attack was uncontrolled, wild. It flew several feet to Vlad’s side, nailing a road sign and burning it like acid until there was nothing left.

Plasmius grinned at its charred remains. “Was that supposed to hit me? My, Daniel, I’m quaking in my boots!”

Danny felt his aura increase.

This week had already been shitty enough, even without Vlad’s help. He felt like his brain was trapped in a hailstorm, with constant unavoidable attacks pelting him from all sides. His core was a ball of energy and anxiety, not allowing him to sleep or eat or even breathe without the constant fear about his body and how it was being messed with and he needed to protect it and how he’d failed so miserably at protecting it and now his secret was going to be revealed and he was screwed.

“Well? I’m waiting! Tick tock, Little Badger!”

Ancients, Vlad was such an asshole.

“Shut UP!” Danny yelled, releasing his ghostly wail.

Just as a pink blast slapped him across the face, sending him flying into a brick building.

Plasmius tisked, flying nonchalantly towards him. “We can’t have you using that particular power, now can we? Not while you’re so obviously in control of yourself.”

“Fuck off.”

The older ghost smirked and brushed dust off his red and white cape. “Teenagers. Always so hormonal. What, did a girl at school reject you?”

“What are you talking about?” Danny launched himself back in the air and powered an ice blast. “You know what? Don’t answer that. I don’t care what you have to say.”

“No, I’m sure you don’t,” Vlad said, releasing a plasmius blast just before Danny released his own. The pink blast travelled across the air like a bullet, punching Danny in the gut and sending him crashing back into the building.

Meanwhile, Danny’s ice blast flew a foot above Vlad’s head, webbing itself into a tree and coating the branches with thick icicles.

Danny tried to push himself back onto his shaky feet, only to be pushed back down yet again by another plasmius blast.

Brick tumbled onto his head, coating his vision with dust. His body ached, and his neck was sore from the whiplash.

From his clouded vision, a glowing white figure with red eyes and gaudy horn-like spikes for hair hovered closer to him.

“My, my. You really are out of sorts today,” Plasmius said. ���This is almost too easy. I could just take you out right here and go take your parents’ entire spectre speeder straight from your lab.

“What do you even need a spectre speeder for? You can fly,” Danny asked, rubbing a lump from his skull.

“A simple minded teenager such as yourself couldn’t possibly understand my reasons.”

Anger flared through Danny. He gripped some wreckage next to him and forced himself back onto his feet. His legs shook and he felt something wet drip down his calf.

Great, he was bleeding. Just add that to the list of reasons as to why this week was the worst.

“Shut up. I won’t let you do that.”

“Oh?” Plasmius powered a pink blast in each hand. “Then prove it.”

Danny tried, but with each attempted blast, kick, or punch, it seemed like Plasmius was one step ahead of him.

And worse, it felt like he was reveling in the power trip.

A burn here, a kick there—everywhere Danny looked, there was Vlad, glowing fist at the ready. It reminded him of the first time he’d encountered Vlad, back at the mansion. Having Vlad so openly destroy him had been shameful.

Danny collapsed onto the pavement, heaving, his entire body searing in pain.

Plasmius paused to survey him up and down with suspicious eyes. Finally, just as Danny was one breath away from turning invisible out of sheer discomfort, did the ghost finally open his mouth. “Alright, spit it out.”

Anxiety gripped Danny’s stomach. “What are you talking about?”

“Something’s troubling you enough to make you pathetically weak. It’s honestly embarrassing. I can’t stand here watching my future ward make a fool of himself any longer.”

“I’m not moving in with you, creep,” Danny bit back.

“That’s what you think. No matter, tell your dear old uncle what’s troubling you.”

“Go play in traffic.”

Plasmius’ eyes narrowed. “I’d nearly forgotten what a brat you are. Now tell me before I take methods into my own hands.”

Danny sighed, and attempted to stand. But the moment his foot touched the ground, a sharp pain shot up his shin. He hissed, and lowered himself back to the pavement.

“Well? I don’t have all day.”

“It’s nothing,” Danny grumbled, glaring at the pavement. He felt small under Plasmius’ critical gaze. “Nothing at all.”

“It’s obviously something,” Plasmius said, landing in front of Danny. “Now quit wasting my time and tell me what it is before I—”

“Then why don’t you leave? If I’m just wasting your precious time, then go home! It’s not like you even care about me anyways.”

Vlad leaned in, flaring his aura. “In case it’s not clear to your simple teenage brain, your actions represent the both of us. You fuck up, I have to pay the consequences.”

“Who says this is even about ghost stuff?” Danny hissed. “For all you know, I got in a fight with Jazz.”

Vlad scoffed. “Do you seriously believe me to be that stupid? Of course it’s about your identity! Why else would your core be acting so wildly if its Obsession weren’t at stake?”

Danny flinched.

“You did something, and I want to know what it is so I can determine if I need to run damage control on you or not before you blow this for all of us.”

“It’s...” Danny felt his aura pull back. “It’s about...you know…”

“I can assure you I do not know.”

“I...I might have…the police may have found...it…’

Plasmius sighed and rubbed his forehead with his hand. “What did they find?”

“My—my, uh...body?”

“You mean your identity?” Plasmius’ eyes widened.

“Not exactly.” Danny felt his face burn. “You know...the body I left when I...after the accident.”

Plasmius reacted instantly. He shot up, glancing around, before grabbing Danny and pulling him through a hastily erected portal.

Danny felt his body squeeze through the portal and then seconds later, he was in Vlad’s study. The ghost threw Danny on his loveseat and heightened his aura. His brows creased, and his eyes glowed a dangerous shade of red. “What exactly do you mean when you say the police found your deceased body? How did this happen? What the hell did you do?”

“It wasn’t my fault!” Danny cried indignantly. “They found it with their freakish police dog! I swear I buried it deep in the ground.”

“Well not deep enough, apparently!” Vlad pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers. “Of all the stupid, childish things you could do!”

“It wasn’t my fault!”

Vlad ripped his hands away from his face, his eyes snapping back to Danny. He took a step closer to the teen, his eyes narrowing until a red glow peaked underneath. “Then whose fault would it be exactly, hmm? What, is this yet another piece of blame you’re going to cast upon my shoulders? Me, the halfa who has managed to keep this a well kept secret for over twenty years when you apparently can’t even manage to keep it to yourself for one?”

Danny let his own ghostly strength shine through his eyes. “Quit acting like I invited them all over. I didn’t, it was a coincidence. A mistake.”

“Oh, goodness me!” Vlad let out a sardonic laugh. “I guess when the Ghost Investigative Ward appear at my doorstep in a month, I’ll just tell them it was all a mistake. That’s sure to turn them right around!”

“Shut up.”

“No I will not.” Vlad’s face set back into a scowl. “You have proven yourself to be a liability again and again, and every single time it’s me who has to clean up your little messes. Messes that you don’t seem to realize could be the end of our kind!”

Anxiety shot through Danny’s stomach. He gripped the arm rests of the chair, squeezing them so tightly he heard the faint sounds of cracking in the wood.

“And now you mean to tell me that the police have your rotting, ectoplasm-drenched inhuman corpse in their possession?” Vlad yelled. “And you’re really trying to argue with me that it was just a simple mistake?”

Danny’s shaking hand slipped, tearing off a chunk of the armchair. It clattering to the floor. “I don’t—I didn’t mean for this to happen. I don’t…”

Vlad closed his eyes, but Danny could still see the wisps of red shimmering through his eyelids. “No, of course you didn’t. But that doesn’t mean we can let them keep it.”

“I’ve tried.” His voice cracked. “I keep trying to convince them to stop, but they won’t—”

“What, you actually thought they’d listen to you? A ghost? My boy, I know you were dim, but this is truly extraordinary.”

Danny sniffed, keeping his head down. He felt like an egg boiling over, the yolk just one jolt away from breaking.

“No…” Plasmius hummed. “What we need is to take it back by force.”

“We can’t, they have the whole morgue under a shield. We can get in as ghosts, and it’d look too suspicious if we showed up as humans.”

“Unfortunately, you may be right about us appearing as humans. We can’t do that. But,” Plasmius’ tone shifted, “one thing we can do is break the shield.”

Danny froze. He gazed questioningly up at the older ghost, who was facing the window with a renewed sense of determination. “Break the shield? How? We can’t touch it!”

“No, but the shield doesn’t exist on its own. It has to be generated from somewhere, doesn’t it? Do you see? We break the device, we break the shield.”

Danny wasn’t following, and he was sure his face betrayed that much.

“Listen, Little Badger. Ghosts cannot touch the shield or the device, but who says—oh I don’t know—maybe a collapsed ceiling might do the trick? Some torn cables, perhaps? After all, with no energy supply, how could it possibly generate the power necessary to produce a shield?”

Danny felt his eyes widen. Something icy settled in his gut. When he spoke, his voice was hollow. “You want to destroy the building.”

“Well I certainly wouldn’t be so crude, but perhaps a few colleagues of mine might be swayed—”

“No.” Danny stood automatically.

Vlad’s head snapped over to him. “No?”

He could feel Vlad’s confusion, and it blended with his own. Deep down, he knew he needed to stop at nothing to get his body back, but collapsing the building? Putting others in danger?

Putting his remains in danger of ruin?

What if something happened? What if a brick fell on his skull? What if a spike tore his abdomen in half?

No, he couldn’t do it. It wasn’t worth the risk.

This was wrong.

“We can’t,” Danny choked out. “You’ll hurt it.”

“I don’t think you understand, Little Badger,” Vlad hissed, leaning down.

Danny could feel the heat of his red eyes on his skull.

“With the position you’ve put us both in? You don’t get to decide what happens to your corpse now.”

“No, Vlad. I’m serious. You can’t—”

“And so am I.” Plasmius straightened, and his aura tinted to a dangerous pink. “You’ve put us at risk one time too many. Now I’m taking things into my own hands. And no amount of scary eyes is going to sway me.”

In one motion, Vlad ripped open a portal and pushed Danny through. Before he could blink, he was back in the damp alley they’d just been in.

“Good day, Danny Phantom.”

Plasmius shut the portal, and Danny was alone.

---

“Thank you for taking the time to come talk to us about this,” Mark said, opening the conference room door for the consultant before him. “This case is unfortunately a bit out of my expertise, and the lab results are even more perplexing. Hopefully you’ll be able to parse through the documents much easier than I.”

Dr. Maddie Fenton, dressed in her typical turquoise lab attire, stepped through the door and took a seat at the table. “Of course, I’m always happy to help Amity’s law enforcement protect its citizens against ghosts.”

“Well,” Mark pulled out a chair for himself, placing the manila folders against the table. “This is actually a bit more complex.”

“Oh?” Dr. Fenton reached for the folders.

“To bring you up to speed, I mentioned on the phone that we needed your assistance with a murder case involving a ghost. But there’s a bit more to it.”

She opened the folder and leafed through the files.

“The truth is the body we uncovered we believe to be Phantom’s body.”

Dr. Fenton paused, her eyebrows shooting up. She glanced up at Mark. “That’s a rather serious case. What evidence do you have to support that?”

“Well…” Mark started. “When we uncovered the body, Phantom appeared above it, and was acting rather erratically. Like a cornered animal, almost.”

“He felt threatened.”

“Right.” He nodded. “But it’s more than that. When we ran forensics on the body, we found that all our lab results were corrupted with ectoplasm. Ectoplasm that when we ran the ectosignature for, turned out to be Phantom’s.”

Dr. Fenton looked back down at the files. “That’s highly unusual.”

“Well we were hoping you’d be able to piece this all together.” Mark gestured to the files.

“I see…” Dr. Fenton’s voice trailed off. Her eyes scanned the page, hungrily soaking up each word. The silence stretched on for a few minutes as Mark awaited her opinion.

Contacting the Fentons had been something Mark had been pushing off for as long as possible. The Fentons were loud, boisterous, and not at all known for their professionalism nor tact.

But it was either they contact the Fentons or the Ghost Investigation Ward. And despite Phantom’s cold demeanor towards the detectives, Mark still had hope that perhaps he could gain the teen ghost’s trust. And to do that, the GiW could not be anywhere near the station.

Of the duo, Maddie Fenton seemed the most level-headed. And it had just been Mark’s luck that of the pair, she was the one with a doctorate in ectobiology. Which meant that it was perfectly understandable when Mark had requested that she alone come into the station to review the files.

“We’re trying to keep this on the down-low. If Phantom feels like we’re going to turn him over to the government, he’ll clam up. As it stands we’re only barely getting information out of him.”

“Well, I wouldn’t trust anything he says anyway,” she said, not looking up from the paper. “He’ll do whatever possible to keep himself safe. Ghosts are products of their Obsessions, and Phantom is no different. If he feels like this investigation is going to come in the way of him being able to feed into his Obsession, then he’ll do anything to stop that from happening. No matter who he hurts in the process.”

Mark felt a shudder creep up his spine. “Do you think he could be lying about this being his body? Maybe he could have been the one to kill this boy and is trying to cover it up?”

“Hmm…no, that doesn’t seem likely given the labs. And besides, it would be highly unusual for Phantom to be summoned to a body that wasn’t his. Although…” Dr. Fenton mused. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this before.”

“Like what?”

“Well, when an animal dies near a cluster of ambient ectoplasm, their body runs the risk of forming a ghost. However, there must be a significant final moment for the neural pathways in the brain to bond with the ectoplasm. That moment translates into an Obsession, which forms the core that the ghost then forms around. If a human dies peacefully, there’s nothing to work with. But if the human dies violently, or if they die with unfinished business, that gives the ambient ectoplasm something to charge with.”

Mark nodded politely, not seeing where this was going. This was all common knowledge for the people of Amity, and Mark had certainly seen enough of the Fentons’ public speeches to understand these basics.

“The ambient ectoplasm comes from the electrical connections in the brain, unrelated to what’s happening in the body. It’s why a human can be paralyzed from the waist-down, but still form a ghost with functioning legs. Do you see what I’m saying?”

Mark nodded, then shook his head. “I’m sorry, I’m not seeing how this relates to Phantom specifically?”

“There’s no real reason that Phantom’s human body should have been corrupted by ectoplasm. In fact, there’s never been a case of a human body with an ectosignature embedded in its cells. It’s virtually impossible, in fact. Living cells are completely incompatible with ectoplasm.”

Mark stared down at his own copy of the reports, his mind reeling. “You’ve never seen this before?”

“Not in my twenty years in this field.”

“Do you have any idea what could have caused this?”

Dr. Fenton pursed her lips. “There’s one...it would explain a lot about him actually. Human experimentation.”

Oh.

Oh.

Shit.

“You don’t think…” Mark’s voice trailed off, his tongue incapable of finishing the sentence. To think that some sick individual would even attempt such a thing.

“It’s the only logical explanation here.” Dr. Fenton gestured at her folder. “Or at least, the only one I can piece together given this information. Phantom would have had to have died after interacting with an intense amount of ecto-technology. Technology with the power to chemically alter every cell in his living body just before finishing him off with electrocution. Of course, it’s just a theory. Only Phantom knows the truth.”

“Right.” He could hardly process what was being said. “But he won’t tell us the truth.”

“Well, I’m not surprised. Ghosts run a different social hierarchy than humans, theirs is far more simple. It’s entirely based on strength. The stronger the ghost, the better they protect their haunt, the more respect they’re given within ghost culture. If Phantom shows weakness, then the other ghosts can use that to dethrone him as the human world’s great protector.”

“But we’re not ghosts.”

“But he is.” Dr. Fenton cocked her head. “This explains other things too. Like the fact that Phantom, a relatively new ghost, is already a level seven on the ectoplasm power scale.”

“I assume that’s unusual.”

“Quite. It would have had to require an extremely intense death at the very least. But human experimentation with ectoplasm, feelling your body reject itself from the inside out, every strand of DNA being corrupted by the essence of death—that’s not an end I’d wish on my worst enemies.”

“And now we have his corpse. Phantom’s going to feel incredibly threatened. He’s bound to lash out.”

Dr. Fenton nodded gravely. “Then you better wrap this investigation up quickly, because Phantom is still a young ghost. He’s impatient, like a child. The longer you take to solve this case, the more unstable he’ll get. And I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end when he finally snaps.”

---

A dull unease panged at Danny’s core. It was calling to him, trying to goad him to his corpse.

Trouble, trouble, trouble, it seemed to whisper.

But he ignored it, just like he’d been ignoring it all this time. Because no matter how much he tried, he couldn’t get past the shields, he couldn’t get back to his corpse.

He was powerless. Alone.

Scared.

He tried to focus on his math worksheet, but the numbers blurred together and he couldn’t remember what eight times seven was. He had a calculator, but it was in his bag and he couldn’t remember what pocket he’d shoved it into, or even if he’d remembered to put it in his bag last night after staring blankly at the homework assignment for an hour without lifting his pencil even once.

No, his calculator was probably still on his desk at home.

Trouble, trouble, trouble.

The voices were louder now, and the pull was more desperate.

His throat hurt, and for a moment he was convinced his lungs were collapsing before he remembered that he’d forgotten to release the air trapped in his lungs and he couldn’t remember when he’d stopped breathing.

“Danny?” Mr. Falluca said from the front of the room. “Is everything alright?”

He commanded his head to nod, but he wasn’t sure if he succeeded. Maybe he did. He couldn’t check, he couldn’t lift his eyes from the desk.

The voices were too loud.

The dull pang wasn’t so dull anymore.

Trouble, trouble, go now, go now.

The pang was solidifying, taking shape. It was becoming sharper, more urgent.

Go now, go now, go now.

The pokes turned into pricks, threatening to rupture his organs, sending needles down the nerves in his arms and legs. A headache sparked before his eyes and his vision swam.

The voices attacked him from all angles, and fingers brushed against his skin, tugging the sleeves of his shirt towards the window, the ceiling, the wall, the door— anywhere so long as it was away from here. Outside. To the morgue.

Go to the morgue.

Ignore it, be strong. Just ignore it and it’ll go away.

Go now.

No.

Go now, go now, GO NOW.

No, he couldn’t.

The pinpricks finally morphed into one sharp, icy cold knife.

It stabbed his core.

Go now.

He stood from his chair, knocking it back.

Vaguely, he could hear the alarmed cries of his classmates, but he ignored them.

The only thing that mattered was his body. His corpse.

Protect.

A hand grabbed his arm, yanking him back, but he could feel the warmth of the human blood running under its veins and he couldn’t be bothered with human problems right now. Not when he was in danger.

He phased through the grip, and ran out of the classroom. He sprinted down the hall, tearing open the familiar looking door and transforming and taking off into the sky nearly as soon as the sun brushed his skin.

This was different than all the other times his core had tried to coax him to his corpse. Something was wrong. Really, really wrong. His body was in danger, and he needed to save it.

He heard an explosion in the distance, and he increased his speed, feeling his eyes sting as the cool air slapped against his corneas. The world blurred, but it was okay. His core was guiding him now, not his eyes. He didn’t need to see, he just needed to close off and follow his ghostly instincts.

“That’s right!” A deep voice yelled from across the way.

Danny pulled to a halt, blinking the sting from his vision.

Then a boulder flew past his body, hitting the wall of a disturbingly familiar building.

His core yelled in protest. The body was in danger. His body.

“You thought a pesky shield could keep me out? Me, Skulker, the Ghost Zone’s greatest hunter? I’ll show you!”

Ice filled his veins, freezing his aura and building in power around his hands.

Skulker hoisted a parked motorcycle from the edge of the street into the air. “Take this!” he yelled, hurling it into the air.

It was heading straight for the door. It was going to break it, it might break the window, it could damage the body.

An icicle stabbed his core, and before Danny could blink, his hands were raised and jagged blue ice was shooting from his palms, catching the motorcycle in midair and pinning it to the street.

“What is the meaning of this?” Skulker roared, whipping around. His eyes locked on Danny and his confusion melted from this face only to be replaced by a triumphant smirk. “Well hello there, ghost child.”

Danny’s palms burned an even brighter blue. “ Leave,” he hissed, the Ghost Speak slipping off his tongue like butter.

Skulker’s grin widened. “It seems I’ve touched a nerve. Fear not, child, I’m just here to procure your pelt. Well, your other pelt.”

He flashed his aura in a showcase of power that would send most ghosts running for the hills. “Leave.”

A look of contempt replaced the humor on Skulker’s face. His eyes narrowed, and his voice lowered. “I don’t take orders from you, child.”

There was a natural balancing act between his human brain and ghost core, one that ensured that neither half of him was in full control one hundred percent of the time. No matter how human he was, his core still lingered in the background, and no matter how ghost he was, his human brain still kept tabs on his movements.

But now, as Danny watched Skulker rip a slab of concrete from the ground, he felt something snap inside of him.

“Then I have no choice.”

Green overtook his vision, and Danny Fenton simply disappeared.

Time passed—or it didn’t—in swirls of blue and green. If he looked out, he could see the power released from his gloves, he could see the mix of ectoplasm and ice that he was hurling at Skulker, to protect the building, to protect his body, to protect himself from Plasmius.

That vindictive, lonely asshole.

Who was Plasmius to encroach on what was his?

There were flashing lights around him, but Danny paid them no mind. The only thing that mattered was protecting his body.

Protect his haunt.

Protect his people.

Protect.

He could feel the newly pointed teeth pinch his gums, and the ghostly wisps of his hair fizzle around him. But oddly these changes didn’t worry him, instead they made him feel safe, secure. Like a child clinging onto their blanket.

He launched another barrage of attacks at Skulker, tearing holes through his armor. Panic struck Skulker’s features, and all Danny could think of was, ‘good.’ If Skulker wanted to try to claim dominance over his body, then he would suffer tenfold.

And just before he was about to launch a blast at Skulker that was sure to disintegrate his armor, an amplified voice behind him called out, “PHANTOM!”

Danny flinched, his power leaking out of its concentrated ball.

Weak.

“Phantom, stand down!”

Not a chance.

“We have the area surrounded. Stand down or we’ll be forced to shoot.”

“Better listen to your human puppets,” Skulker said, his voice too shaken to sound mocking. “I know when I’ve been bested.”

It took everything in Danny’s power to not launch himself over to Skulker and tear off his head. “You tried to steal my body.”

“That’s a fight between you and Plasmius.”

“Don’t try to get out of this.”

“Phantom,” Detective Johnson said. “Final warning. Stand down.”

Ectoplasm surged throughout his body. “Make me.”

Multiple events happened at once. Skulker motioned to leave just as Danny raised his arms, blistering white light moments away from release. Then, pain seared through his torso.

Danny yelped, jerking his hand back and releasing the ectoblast somewhere off into the sky. He fell back and hit the ecto-shield, sending electrical warnings through his bones.

Memories of the portal, of the thousands of volts of electricity, of the feeling of his bones and muscles and tissues and cells being ripped apart and stitched back together flashed before his eyes. It was too much, all too much too soon too present. He tried blasting the portal but his gloves were splattered with green and oh no, not good, not good.

He was dying, wasn’t he?

Again.

Would he have a second body?

His vision tilted, and finally he managed to rip himself away from the shield. He collapsed onto the cement and stared up at the sky, chest heaving.

He was paralyzed. He knew he had fingers, toes, arms, legs—but they didn’t work. He couldn’t feel anything. Couldn’t fly.

He was dying.

“Phantom?” Johnson’s cautious voice sounded from somewhere off to the side. “Sit up, let’s talk through this.”

There was a pregnant pause, and then Danny finally managed to blink. The world snapped back into focus, and his surroundings came with it. He looked down at his torso to see a little hole in his side of his suit surrounded by a trickle of green.

“What—?” Danny gasped.

“I’m gonna put the gun down, okay?” Johnson said. “I just wanna talk.”

“No.” Danny slowly pushed himself up. He surveyed the damage along the walls, the falling bricks on the sidewalk, the shattered windows and bent door. “No, no, no.”

His body wasn’t safe. Not anymore.

“Phantom, come on. Work with me here.”

But he couldn’t. That detective and his partner were just human, they didn’t understand. This was his body and Vlad knew about it and was trying to take matters into his own hands no matter the cost to Danny.

This was a disaster. He shouldn’t have told Vlad anything. He was so stupid for thinking Vlad could help him. He should have known, should have known.

“Phantom.”

“No.”

The cloak of invisibility covered his body, and he shot up into the sky.

Towards the city.

He needed to end this.

---

Sarah felt the chill first.

“You have to stop,” Phantom’s voice echoed behind her.

She sighed and put down her pencil. “Phantom, I thought I explained this already. The police can’t—”

“I don’t care about the police!”

The room grew cold.

“I don’t...ugh!” Phantom floated around her desk, clutching his forehead with one hand and his chest with the other. Mark had just called her with a warning, saying that Phantom was unstable. Looking at the ghost now, Sarah had to agree.

Phantom looked awful.

Dark circles pooled under his eyes, his hair stuck up in all directions, and his face lacked the green blush that normally sat below his skin. His jumpsuit was burned and dried ectoplasm crusted around the torn edges. He looked every bit the image of someone quickly coming undone.

Except this wasn’t just some random person, this was a powerful ghost. This was someone who could easily kill anyone who wronged him.

Or who he felt wronged him.

Deep down, Sarah knew Phantom wasn’t a violent ghost. It didn’t line up with his ghostly Obsession, or the theorized one anyway. But this was his corpse they were dealing with, it was an extension of himself.

Sarah had never confronted a ghost who had lost possession of their corpse. She’d never dealt with a ghost who willingly protected the shield that kept him away from his body if only to make sure it stayed safe. She’d never seen Phantom look so rattled.

At this point, there was no telling what he was capable of.

“Phantom,” she tried cautiously. “You need to calm down.”

“No, you need to tell your buddies to call off this investigation!”

“You know I can’t do that. I have no control over the department, and even if I did, we need to follow the law.”

His eyes flashed dangerously. “Why, because I’m a ghost? Because my words mean nothing because I’m not human? I’m telling you that I don’t want to press any charges, I don’t get why that’s not good enough!”

The room grew even colder.

“We’ve been over this. Please, Phantom, sit down—”

“No!” he snapped. “I’ve been telling you guys since the beginning that this was a bad idea, that people are going to get hurt! And no, nobody listened to me because I’m a fucking ghost! And now look, the building was attacked! My body was attacked! Do you—” his voice cracked, and the glow on his eyes wobbled. He drifted closer to her. “Do you even understand? Do you get how dangerous this is? Do you understand the people you guys have pissed off? Who you’re playing with now?”

Sarah took a deep breath. Even as a human, the power Phantom was emitting was palpable. “What people? You mean the ghost who attacked the morgue?”

“Not him. He—he’s just a lacky. Just following orders.” He let out a bitter laugh, running his hand over his forehead and smearing green across his skin. “You guys have no idea, you really don’t…”

Dread crept up Sarah’s spine. If what Mark was saying was true, then this could run deeper than they thought. “Explain it to me.”

“I’m…” He glanced up, looking ill. “I’m not…normal. For a ghost, I mean. I can’t explain it. I really can’t. But the other ghosts...they consider me a liability. And now that you guys have my—my body, they’re afraid.”

“Why are they afraid?”

“Because…” His brow furrowed. “I can’t—I can’t…”

She tilted her head, watching the ghost choke on his words. “Can’t, or won’t?”

“It doesn’t matter. They’ll stop at nothing till they get my body back. They’ll kill everyone in that building if it means nobody finds out my secret.”

What secret? Sarah wanted to scream, but she held back.

“Phantom,” Sarah lowered her tone. “Are they the reason you’ve been so afraid of us finding out the truth? Have they threatened you in any way?”

“No!” He backed up in shock. “I—I mean, sort of? Listen, it’s not because of him—them, I promise. It’s more complicated than that. He’s just protecting me, you know? If my secret gets out, that would put them all in danger, but it would put me in even more danger. I wouldn’t...I’d have to leave. I’d be on the run.”

“Why?”

“It’s so messed up.”

“Then tell me.”

She already knew. She just needed him to confirm it for her.

He looked to her, his bright green eyes seemingly desperate for help. But he shook his head. “I can’t do this.”

“Wait—”

But he was already gone.

---

“I’ve never seen him look so scared,” Abrams said.

“So you think he’s right.” Crowley took a long swig of his coffee, “Course you do.”

“It makes sense,” Abrams insisted. “Why else would Phantom be so terrified of people finding the truth?”

“Oh gee, I don’t know, maybe it’s because he’s a teen who was playing with electrical equipment he wasn’t supposed to be near and even in death doesn’t want to get in trouble for it!”

“Yes but how would that explain all the ectoplasm in his DNA? That doesn’t come from just any electric shock.”

“Who knows,” Crowley said. “The Fentons have always been crackpots. Always have had ludicrous theories. Now suddenly when it’s convenient, you’re all running to their side?”

Mark rolled his eyes. “We’re not running to their side.”

“Then what do you call this?” Crowley gestured to the duo. “Sure looks like it to me.”

“You have to admit that it makes sense,” Mark said. “I mean, get real. Doesn’t any of this smell fishy to you?”

Crowley slapped his empty coffee mug on the table. “You know what smells fishy to me? The Fentons are the only known ecto-scientists in this whole damn city, the only people who have lab-grade ecto-equipment in Amity Park, and suddenly right when they were getting into some financial trouble, Phantom appears out of nowhere from a death that reeks of forced ecto-contamination. That smells fishy to me.”

Mark paused, but then shook his head. “If that were true, then why would Dr. Fenton even offer human experimentation as a possibility?”

“To gloat? Gain our trust? Test our intelligence?” Crowley threw his hands up. “Who knows? They’re crazy!”

“So you think we need to investigate them?” Mark asked.

“I’d be a damn shit detective if I didn’t. They have the means and motive to create a ghost like Phantom. It’s just like Maddie said.”

“I think he’s right,” Abrams said, nibbling on her bagel. “If this is actually a case of ecto-experimentation, then the Fentons should be on the list of suspects.”

“Finally, some common sense around here. Just about the only case of common sense these days…” Crowley grumbled.

Mark chose to ignore that comment, instead checking his phone. No notifications, damn. The entire department had been on high alert for Phantom ever since the attack on the morgue. Mark was just relieved that the new and improved ecto-guns had finally been issued that morning. If not for the updated technology, that incident likely would have ended far less smoothly.

Not that it really ended smoothly. Phantom had yet again escaped Mark’s clutches, free to run off and break into Sarah’s home.

Guilt clawed at Mark’s stomach, but he pushed it back. Phantom was a slippery ghost, one that had escaped all levels of ghost hunters from the Fentons, to the Ghost Investigation Ward. Mark knew it would take a lot more than a few words of peace and one ecto-gun to stop that kind of raw power.

“What do we even know about the Fentons?” Abrams asked.

“They’re ghost hunters and mostly make weapons now, but before that they dabbled in all sorts of ecto-based technology. The husband, Jack, is the engineer and the wife, Maddie, is the biologist. They have two kids, Jasmine and Daniel. Jasmine, or ‘Jazz’ is supposedly top of her class, likely to graduate valedictorian, while Daniel’s something else. Bad grades, skips class, all around a bit of a loner,” Crowley said, regurgitating information like he was reading a case file.

Mark glanced at his colleague, giving him an impressed smirk. “Did your homework early, eh?”

“I told you, something aint right here,” Crowley said.

“And? What do you think?” Mark asked.

“What I think is that I’m shocked their house is even coded to have a lab inside. I’d like to know whose ass they kissed to give them that permit.”

Abrams snorted. “Jesus, Jacob.”

“What? I’m right!”

“Fine, whatever,” Mark stood, collecting his empty coffee cup and paper plate. “I godda head home, my sister’s visiting this weekend.”

“Alright, tell Susan I said hello. And say hi to her little demon child too.”

Mark rolled his eyes. “She’s four.”

“What, four year olds can’t be demons? I should know, I had two of them.”

Abrams swiped her empty wrapper and tossed it in the trash. “Yeah, I have to feed Atlas. I’ll see you both next week.”

“Take care!”

---

“Well at least we know Phantom didn’t change anything about his facial structure when he became a ghost.” Crowley’s small eyes swiveled between the photo of Phantom in one hand and the new sketch rendition of his human identity.

Mark grunted and stared at his own copy of the photo.

The corpse had been too decomposed to be able to distinguish a face, and ghosts often change their appearance in death. Sure, Phantom looked like a regular human, but it was impossible to know that for a fact.

Fortunately, modern research and re-composition was advanced enough that they didn’t have to wonder for long. Especially with this being such a high-profile case for the city.

And as it turned out, aside from the hair, Phantom really didn’t look all too different when he was alive. He had the same sharp nose, the same angular chin, the same boyish face. The only thing that was different was his hair and presumably his eye color, although that was still a mystery due to the corrupted DNA.

Even though there was little change to Phantom’s appearance, seeing the black haired, brown eyed human boy staring back at Mark was rather shocking, if he were being honest. There was something off putting about seeing this enigma quite literally brought back to life. It took away that edge of lore that the heroic town enigma had.

Now Phantom wasn’t some wild mystery. He was just...a kid.

“This really is something,” Crowley said. “Guess we should put it to good use.”

Mark sighed, turning his attention back to his desktop. Sifting through missing person’s reports was never exactly a fun way to start the morning.

“You think you can handle it, rookie?” Crowley asked.

“Yeah, I got it. I’ll let you know if I find anything interesting.”

Crowley let the photographs drop to his side. “Alright, I’m going to continue doing some digging on our suspects.”

“Good luck.”

“And you.”

The work was tedious and depressing. Face after face of missing minors flickered across his screen. It was almost too hard to believe that Phantom was a part of this list.

Caucasian. Black hair. Eye color unknown. Five foot five.

That was all they had on Phantom. For all they knew, he could have been from another city entirely.

But hopefully Mark would find a hit, at least one kid from Amity who fit the profile.

And in fact, there were a few...sort of. Four teens who had black hair and were about five foot five. But none of them looked quite like Phantom.

Which meant Mark had to widen his search.

How wonderful.

He leaned back in his chair, stretching his arms out wide. It was nearly lunchtime now and he felt like he’d gotten no further than where he was before. Mark stood from his chair, feeling a bit defeated. Hopefully Crowley would’ve had better luck on the suspect list than Mark.

He strolled over to Crowley’s desk, only to find the desk empty. Crowley had likely already left for lunch, the bastard hadn’t even bothered to grab Mark on the way.

Not that Mark could really blame him. He doubted Crowley wanted to use his lunch break to talk about the case after the tedious research they both had spent their mornings doing.

Mark dug his phone out of his pocket, intent on sending the older detective an update, when he stopped. Out of the corner of his eye, a familiar face stared up at him.

Mark slowly lowered the device and crept toward the desk, as if his mere presence would disintegrate the paper on his desk.

Inside Fentonworks: the Fenton family’s home-grown anti-ghost business!

It was an article printed from some online magazine that Mark didn’t recognize. Slapped on the cover of the page, just under the title, was a photo of a family of four beaming, waving at the camera. One of the members was a young boy—about Phantom’s age—with black hair in almost the same haircut as Phantom, with that crooked smile that Phantom had been caught adorning all too many times.

Waving at the camera.

Skinny, short for a boy, son to two ecto-science parents who fill their basement with dangerous high-voltage and easily combustible ecto-technology.

His name was listed as Daniel.

Mark glanced at the two images in his hand, and then looked at the article below him.

Holy shit.

No. There was no way. Crowley had been suspicious of them, and he had good reason to include them on his suspect list, but this kid was alive. He wasn’t missing, he wasn’t dead, he was standing right there.

It just wasn’t possible.

His apple watch pinged, alerting him of a ghost attack nearby.

Mark hurried back to his desk, swiping his coat off his chair.

This was impossible.

The police sketch and the copy of the article pressed against his fist.

Phantom was a ghost. Ghosts will do anything to protect themselves. They would lie, cheat, and manipulate humans in order to stay on top.

Mark was just seeing things.

There was no way that this was him.

He beelined for the door, tucking the papers into his pants pocket.

It wasn’t possible.

The drive there was short, and the fight even shorter. It had just been the Box Ghost, so nothing that Phantom couldn’t handle. The ghost gave his little song and dance, captured the ghost, and waved brightly to the crowd. But Mark could see right through it, right past all the cracks in his façade.

Phantom was losing it.

And Mark could end this.

“Phantom!” Mark called out through his cupped hands.

The ghost flinched, his cheery face replaced with a scowl instantly.

“Another time,” he said.

But Mark didn’t have another time. He needed to know now.

Because Phantom could end this insane proposition. He could laugh heartlessly at the mere mention that he was this random living child. He was Phantom, protector of Amity Park, not some human experiment.

Not some impossibility.

Not some kid who’s been dead for a year and only pretending to be human for his family.

Not the greatest act of manipulation from a ghost that Mark had ever seen.

Mark yanked the papers from his pocket and unfolded them with shaking fingers. He held them up hastily, knowing that they were too far away for normal human eyes.

But this was Phantom. He wasn’t human.

Mark saw the exact moment that Phantom recognized the photos. The ghost’s eyes widened, his face paled, his aura dimmed. Then, in the blink of an eye, the ghost vanished.

Mark was right.

---

The air was thick, tense. Phantom slumped in his armchair, his body the equivalent of a white flag. Even so, his eyes were bright, charged with nervous energy.

He was terrified.

Atlas must have sensed this, because the dog had decided to break away from being Sarah’s shadow to lay against the ghost’s feet.

“I don’t know where to start,” Phantom admitted after a few tense beats of silence.

“The beginning, maybe,” Jacob said.

Phantom looked sick at the suggestion, but relented. “You’re right. Yeah...I…” he glanced up at the two detectives and Sarah seated across the coffee table on her dull green couch. Phantom had appeared in her kitchen not even an hour ago, looking like he’d just seen the personification of death itself.

And instantly, Sarah knew.

She’d tried to coax him to let her bring him to the station so he could come clean there, but he refused. He said the information was too sensitive and he didn’t trust the station to not have cameras recording every angle of every room.

And so they settled on her living room instead. Mark and Jacob arrived, seeming none too surprised by the arrangement, and more than willing to follow Phantom’s direction if it meant they would finally get the truth.

Which Phantom didn’t seem remotely ready to give.

“I guess…” He tried again, closing his eyes. There was another tense moment of silence before a pair of white rings appeared around Phantom’s waist, traveling up his body and leaving behind a skinny black haired teenager.

Phantom cautiously opened his eyes. And, to Sarah’s surprise, they were blue.

“You’re Daniel Fenton,” Mark said.

She heard Jacob suck in a breath.

“Yes. I’m Danny Fenton.” Without the echo, his voice sounded much closer, much more down to earth than Phantom’s. “And a year ago, I was in an accident.”

His voice, like the rest of him, seemed softer without the powerful aura of Phantom behind it. If Sarah had passed him on the street, she wouldn’t have blinked twice. Gone was the cocky personality, the perfect posture, the floating white hair, the bright, determined expression. Gone was the jumpsuit, the logo, the strong voice that seemed like it could project for a mile, the banter, the confidence.

It was just a kid. A kid with baggy jeans, dirty shoes, and a plain shirt. He didn’t seem lithe, he looked weak. The green undertone to his skin was replaced with red, and his shoulders hunched in a way Sarah had never seen on Phantom before.

“What happened?” Mark asked.

“When my parents first completed their interdimensional ghost portal, it didn’t work. I decided to—it was my fault. I just decided to go in it. I don’t know why.” He looked up to the ceiling. “It was a stupid idea. The portal was plugged in, but there was a switch inside that wasn’t turned on, and I tripped over a wire and turned it on. From the inside.”

Sarah felt a pang in her chest. “That’s horrible.”

“Yeah. It was,” Phantom agreed. “And then I guess the portal stabilized the connection between Amity Park and the Ghost Zone, because ghosts started appearing in town. So I decided that if it was my fault that they were here, I was going to protect the town. And that’s what I’ve done.”

That’s his Obsession, Sarah realized. It’s protection.

“Why not come out with it?” Jacob asked. “Why bury your body? Why still try to pass as a human?”

Phantom’s head fell into his hands. “I didn’t know what else to do! It—I...you have to understand, my parents would never understand. They think all ghosts are evil. I couldn’t just come out and tell them what happened, they’d kill me!”

“So you decided it was safer to play human,” Jacob said.

“Yeah. I guess I did. Especially since...I sort of still am?” He lifted his head and stuck out his wrist. “I still have a pulse.”

No one moved.

“You’re shitting me,” Jacob guffawed.

“No, I’m being serious. The portal killed me, but then it brought me back to life. Except by then my body was already altered from the ecto-electricity, so the working theory is that I exist in this sort of limbo state between dead and alive. Hence why…” He transformed into Phantom and then back to Fenton. “Hence why I have two forms.”

“And the body,” Mark said. “The coroner report said it only weighed a little over half the weight of a normal body due to all the ectoplasm. But if you’re half alive, how would you have a body?”

Danny shrugged. “I don’t know? To be honest, that day was such a nightmare that I’ve mostly blocked it out.”

Mark finally reached over and took the boy’s wrist. He pressed two fingers against the skin and waited.

“Damn.” His eyes widened. “It’s actually there.”

“No way,” Jacob said, leaning over to take Phantom’s wrist. A few seconds passed before he was joining Mark’s reaction. “It is there.”

“I know.” Phantom tucked his arm back to his chest. “I don’t understand it. I have a heart and also a ghost core. I can feel it all the time, even as a human. I have human thoughts and feelings and ghostly instincts playing constantly.”

As confusing and morbid as this was, it made sense in a sort of twisted way that Sarah only reserved for the rambling logic of her paranoid, senior grandmother. It explained why Phantom, a ghost, would willingly risk himself day in and day out over the safety of humans. Phantom was a ghost who was driven to protect his home, and he was also a human who wanted to look after those he loved.

He was truly Schrödinger’s cat. Dead and alive inside his little box, his little town, with no one able to measure him.

“That’s the thing that sets you apart from the ghosts,” Sarah said, tapping her knee with her finger. “That day when you came to my house saying that you were different, this is what you were talking about. You also said it would be dangerous if this information got out.”

The question was implied, and Phantom seemed to pick up on it, judging by his grimace.

“You weren’t talking about your parents.”

“No, I wasn’t.”

“So then who is it? Who was trying to destroy the morgue? Who are you hiding from?”

Danny crossed his arms and glared at the floor. “Isn’t it obvious?” he said bitterly. “The government. GiW, all of them. Think of what they’d do if they knew someone could be both dead and alive at the same time.”

“Well fuck the lot of them,” Jacob said.

“Yeah,” Danny agreed.

“And the ghost who was trying to take down the morgue?” Mark pressed.

“I…” Danny’s eyes shifted. “I can’t say. It’s a ghost thing. All the ghosts in the Zone know about me, they call me a halfa. Half alive, half dead. Honestly, I don’t think it took much convincing for them to want to protect me.”

“But you were fighting against them,” Jacob countered. “If they were really trying to protect you, then why not go along with them?”

Danny opened and closed his mouth, the words seemingly stuck in his throat. Words from Maddie’s ecto-biology papers fluttered across Sarah’s eyes, about how ghosts were evil, they were liars, they’d say and do anything to keep themselves safe.

But as Danny let out a defeated sigh, his arms uncrossing to dangle at his side, Sarah couldn’t help but see the face of a scared teen who was just doing his best.

“It’s a ghost thing,” he finally said. “I didn’t like what they were doing because...because I needed to protect my body. If the building collapsed, it would have gotten damaged.”

Sarah blinked, and her and Mark exchanged a glance.

“I see,” Mark said carefully. “So if there was a plan to recover your...body...safely, you would have gone along with it?”

“I don’t know. Ghosts are weird, they all have their own agenda. I’d rather if it were just...left alone. In the ground. Untouched. Like it had been.”

They were silent for a moment, and Sarah watched as Jacob and Mark stared at each other in silent conversation. One that only partners could properly understand.

Finally, Jacob relented. “Okay, here’s the deal. Say I go talk with Chief Davis and he agrees to keep your identity secret. In exchange, all you’d have to do for us is tell your parents.”

For a moment, Sarah thought Phantom was going to bolt out of the armchair.

“Why?”

“Because you’re screwing around putting your life in danger every day, kid,” Jacob said. “Not to mention, your parents’ house is a walking minefield for you. You godda protect yourself.”

“I protect myself just fine.”

“Doesn’t dismiss the fact that you’re running off getting in fights every day with ghosts, and then coming home to a house littered with ecto-weapons that could kill you. You know, all the way.”

“My parents will kill me if they find out though,” Danny said darkly. “You don’t know them.”

“Which is why you won’t be alone. Crowley and I will be there with you. And I know a woman in CPS who can keep this on the down low too. We won’t let anything happen, promise,” Mark said.

Phantom glanced between them, his wide blue eyes betraying just how fearful he was. “You promise?”

“Yeah kid, we got your back.”

---

“It’s going way better than I thought,” Danny said, throwing the stick up the path.

Atlas didn’t hesitate, bounding after the object with an enthusiasm rivaled by no one.

“I’m glad,” Sarah said. “You deserve a safe place to go home to.”

Danny cocked his head. “Yeah. I guess I do.”

Getting to know Danny these past few weeks was surreal. For a year now, Sarah had a set mental image of who Phantom was. The hero, the great protector, the thrill-seeker.

But now, as she got to know the quiet yet snarky kid who went to school and stressed over his math exams just like any other teen would, she’d gotten to appreciate the person that Danny truly was, the person he became when he wasn’t trying to hide his ghostly persona or playing the larger-than-life character.

Atlas pranced back, the stick held high like an Olympic medal.

“Good boy!” Danny praised.

At Sarah’s nonverbal command, Atlas dropped the stick in front of Danny, who was more than happy to pick it up and hurl ahead of the dirt path again.

“It’s weird. It’s almost like...I don’t know, it’s just kind of relieving? To not need to hide? Like don’t get me wrong, my parents are still kinda weird about it. I still don’t really use any of my powers at home because I just don’t think I’m ready. But the other day I used intangibility to get a cup out of the cabinet instead of just opening the cabinet door, and my mom didn’t even say anything. I remember back when I first got my powers and I couldn't figure out how to work them. I spent so long trying to hide any weirdness, and to think that now I can just do stuff and nobody cares.” A blissful smile dressed Danny’s lips. “It’s just nice, is all.”

“I bet,” Sarah said. “Must be a huge weight off your shoulders. And your sister’s okay with it?”

“Oh yeah. My sister actually already knew about it.”

“You’re kidding. Really?”

Danny threw the stick again. “Yeah, but I already knew about that. She told me a few months ago. But she’s been really helpful at home with trying to get everyone on the same page.”

“That’s good.”

“And my dad’s already been begging to take me out to the field with him.”

“Have you taken him up on it?”

“No. Not yet.”

Sarah peered cautiously over to him. “Why not?”

“I dunno.” Danny’s eyes tracked Atlas’ triumphant return from the woods. “It just seems a bit weird still. And besides, it would be kinda odd if my parents went from trying to kill me to suddenly Phantom’s new best friend overnight. For now they’ve agreed to a public truce.”

Ah yes, the truce. That had been all over the news when the Fenton’s announced it, citing new research into ghost psychology that showed instances of benevolent ghosts. The news had rocked the city, some calling the duo crazy, while others praising them for their growth.

Even though Phantom and the Fenton couple were still in the growing pains of their new truce, no one could deny how much more smoothly ghost fights had gotten since it began. There was less property damage, less citizen’s hurt, and overall the process seemed far more professional than it ever had.

“I’ve noticed a change,” Sarah said. “I really think it’s for the best.”

“So do I. Even though it’s still kinda weird.”

“It’ll get easier, just give it time.”

Atlas dropped the stick, apparently distracted by some scent on a bush. He stopped to sniff the plant before wandering behind it, his nose glued to the ground.

“Wait, Atlas—” Danny started, watching as Atlas disappeared into the foliage.

Hearing his name, the dog leapt back onto the trail and over to Danny, who paused to scratch him behind his ear. “Good boy.”

Sarah grinned down at the duo.

Who knew a cadaver dog and a half dead kid could make such a good pair?

---

Thanks for reading!

[crystalk17]

This is my super late submission for the MCYT gt gift exchange. I am really sorry for it being so late. I hope it is up to your standards!!!

This gift is for @leetlezeetle

Their promt: Giant dragon hybrid kidnaps a tiny/human to watch its young while they hunt.

As soon as I read this I thought "OMG PHILZA!!!"

So here is a fatherly, Giant, halfbreed dragon named Philza. Who kidnaps a young knight in training named Tommy. Maybe he can handle the young ones? Or maybe he will become the next meal. Who knows?

Tommy remembers the first day he was brought here. The teen was working on his stances and swings. Not even hours ago his face was shoved into the dirt by Dream. "You will never be a true knight. You can't even strike down Niki and she's a woman!" Tommy felt a heavy boot across his back shoving his body and pride even further into the mud. "You will quit or be killed."

Picking his body up the young-looking blond whipped the mud all over his front and face. If he was rebellious he would flick it at the superior, but now was not the time. After cleaning the brown thickness from his eyes he saw Dream holding his silver sword out to him with one hand. Tommy didn't say another word, even though so many were boiling under the skin to be screamed out. With a swipe of his hand, he grabbed the sword storming off.

Now he was in the field making sure he was perfect. Every swing of the sword, every shift of his body, had to be just right or he would restart with a deep growl. He would not leave until he got this perfect.

At least that was the plan.

Instead, he swung the sword jutting it straight out. The invisible enemy crippled back from the fatal stab. He was holding the wound begging for mercy.

"No foul creature. This is your last day on earth." Sliding his foot back he prepared for the final blow. Ramming the sword forward with such speed he had to close his eyes. He knew this was not the correct way to stab someone, but he was just practicing and he would try again. He expected the sword to slide through air. He would open his eyes and he would be holding his sword with one hand straight out and a perfect stance with the ghost enemy on the ground. But...but...he struck something.

Opening his eyes just a peek, his blood ran cold. Standing inches away from him was a black dragon with dark green scales sprinkled in. He thrust his sword forward hitting only the beast's clawed hand. The beast was humongous. Tommy had to look straight up into the air to even see the Creature's surprisingly blue eyes. What startled him, even more, was the fact that if the dragon wasn't looking its head over Tommy then he wouldn't even be able to see his eyes very well.

He could feel his body freeze. It didn't want to move. He felt the sword drop from his hands when the creature got even closer sniffing at his head. His hair flew up a bit then landed on top of the sweat already traveling down his face. The ground seemed to be shaking...oh wait that was his feet shaking back and forth. His pupils went wide when the blackish dragon nudged him with its claws. Maybe to see if he was alive?

Faster than he thought the creature could move, its clawed hand struck out grasping the young knight. It easily encompasses the human hiding it from the world. Tommy's whole body was encased by leather and claws that were larger than his own body. Was he seriously getting kidnapped like a princess? For what seemed like five minutes, most likely longer, Tommy banged against his rock-hard prison. He looked down seeing the monster made the mistake of allowing him to keep his sword. As if it was an instinct he grasped it in two hands and shifted his body forward. One. Two. Three hits. Even a stab and nothing happened. He wouldn't be surprised if he looked at the to and it was bent. He was going to be here for a while. -------------------------------------------------------

That very day was three months ago. On this very day, Tommy was sitting on the dusty ground of a cave, light reflecting off the walls from the fire he built. There was always plenty of food and the cave even had a small stream running through it. He was always surprised no other creatures tried to claim this area as theirs, but at the same time, he understood why.

Behind him, the sound of running feet hitting rock made his head turn. At this point, he was used to this. Looking outside it seemed about that time when the young ones started to stir.

"You can't catch me!!" Running up behind Tommy a child with short brown hair and a rugged jacket came into view. The child decided to run right behind Tommy's back even though his body was way too big to be covered up by the teen. The child looked like he could be a very young adult in stature, but in fact, this was a young halfling.

Two other forms came running out, but instead of humans like this child one was an actual dragon the size of a horse and the other human-looking but with dragon features. These three were young dragon halflings. Tommy found out through experience and reading in books halfling children had no control over their body. The younger they were the more dangerous they were.

When halfling babies are born they are very small compared to their parents. They are the size of a human, some can even be the size of a human toddler. As they got older their bodies morphed into the proper size. This is the exact reason why most halflings do not survive. They have dangers around every corner because of their vulnerable size and accidents do happen between the older halflings and their young. Throughout the years, the children would get used to their shifting abilities, so it wasn't uncommon for siblings, like these three, to look completely different.

The human-looking child keep moving back and forth so he was covered up by his 'shield'. The human with dragon features was trying to get around the sitting human to get to his sibling. With every movement, Tommy flinched a bit because the dragon halfling had claws that were digging into him every time he touched Tommy's skin while trying to get around him. He knew it was an accident, probably didn't even think about it, but he had to learn.

"Michael" he winced once more as his claws touched his shoulder. "Michael." he raised his voice a bit more to get the child's attention. The volume seemed to get his attention cause he froze in his actions. "Michael. What did we talk about playing."

"To be careful." Tommy watched as the pink flaps he had for ears drooped down showing he was upset.

"Yes, kid. You unlike your brothers have claws, wings, and these cool horns." Tommy grabbed one horn and shook the child's whole head making him smile. "I can't have your dad coming back and I'm filled with holes from your claws. He would kill us both. Just make sure next time-"

As he was talking the third child jumped right on top of Tommy. The Third was a black dragon like his father but had specks of dirty yellow scales on him. Somehow the third child learned to turn into a full dragon, but couldn't control turning back very often. He was the size of a horse and as heavy as one. "Tubbo! Tubbo get off!" Tommy was using all his strength to push the little dragon off, but all it accomplished was a face full of dragon licks.

This was how it was every single day. Tommy was left in the cave with three halfling children named Wilbur, Michael, and Tubbo. Every day it was him watching as the three played tag or roughhoused with each other while their father was gone. Who was the father? That was the black dragon who kidnapped him three months ago. Every day the giant black dragon would go out hunting, leaning poor Tommy to watch and protect his young. At first, he hated it and wanted to escape himself, but after a few days of being stuck here, the seventeen-year-old fell in love with Phil's children. Anymore he couldn't picture it any differently.

"Tubbo this is the last time I'm asking. Get off." his face was drenched in dragon slobber. The most he could do was push against the black dragon's body but he wouldn't budge. All it accomplished was the young one started to nuzzle and push up against his face to show affection. Michael ran behind Tommy's head and put all his weight on the human's arms. He was pinned to the ground and he was not going anywhere. His legs would flail up and down, but that was about it. He couldn't even do this much in fear of kicking one of the halflings.

"Get off!" Through his shouting and torturous affection, Tommy heard wood breach at the opening of the cave. The three children must have heard it too, because all three of their heads whirled to the opening as well. Tubbo started to growl and Michael's eyes grew wide. Tommy could feel the young dragon slowly stepping off his body, but he had to be ready for action now. Gently pushing him all the way, Tommy grabbed his sword from the ground. This was why he was brought here. His job was to protect and help with the young ones when their father was gone. All this training had to come into play. His heart started to beat faster as he watched the three halflings hide behind his body as if they weren't bigger than him, as if he could protect them from whatever dared to come into a dragon's den. His grip tightened on the hilt as his eyes glared at the opening. Tommy put one hand out to assure the young ones behind him.

Tubbo started to sniff the air, then his tail wagged like a dog's. He was excited about something. He ran forward with a determined speed. Tommy tried to reach out and grab his neck, but he was just dragged forward when the pup ran at full speed. Tommy dug his feet into the ground, but it didn't seem to help.

Tubbo came to an abrupt stop, flipping Tommy's body onto the ground. He frowned in irritation. He couldn't even stop a running five-year-old, how was he supposed to protect these guys?

Walking into the entrance of their hidden cave was the same black dragon who grabbed him all those months ago. With the creatures massive body in full view Tubbo ran full speed towards his father wagging his tail. Tommy had to just release or be dragged with him. He watched as the dragon very carefully dropped a dead cow, probably stolen from the villagers. The sheer black beast very carefully nuzzled Tubbo with the end of his snout getting a small squick in response.

Michael and Wilbur ran over, but straight to their dinner. Tommy watched in disgust as the two would burn the carcass with their fire than eat the pieces they tore off like hamburgers.

"Not hungry?" a deep rumbling voice asked with a surprising gentleness to it.

Tommy's scrunched up in disgust. "I'll stick to my berries and properly hunted meat. He looked up to see where a black dragon was standing was now an adult half breed human. The half dragon was smaller then the dragon form, by 20 feet to be exact. He still had black dragon wings, his tail, razor teeth, even his claws on his hands, but everything else was the perfect imitation of a human.

Tommy grabbed his sword to head out and find his own food. He would allow the family their time and he could practice with his sword. He marched to the opening when the tail curled around him blocking his path. In irritation, he looked up at the smug blond-haired male who looked 30 with horns. He had his wings tucked away, but Tommy knew they were there. He attempted to climb over the tree truck-sized obstacle until it started to move dragging him closer to the half-breed.

"What! I'm just getting food unless you want your protector to starve." The tail didn't stop herding him until he was right back to the other three dragonlings. Tommy knew he didn't need his sword so he let it drop while he yelled up at the beast. "This isn't funny Phil."

"You know I appreciate you right?"

Since he was close enough now, Phil gently picked the young knight up with two fingers. He could feel Tommy squirming, but both knew nothing would happen.

"If I didn't think you could handle yourself, I wouldn't have chosen you to watch my young."

Tommy looked back in those deep blue eyes before he spoke. "Yeah well... I know."

Phil put the human back down beside the other three. He curled his tail closely around the four. His four kids.

[andydona-chan]

Bad, bad treat!

Read it at AO3!

Scratching a bit on the wall with the spatula, Danny sighed, he had been trying to remove the mix of candy and ectoplasm from the walls on Fenton Works for at least 3 hours now. He was tired, but the memories from the day before still made him smile, so he supposed it was worth it.

Looking back at what happened, he should have seen it coming, he sighed and turned to look at his two best friends, Tucker and Sam were helping him, and even though Tucker looked like he was melting with all the activity this required and Sam, with red-tinted cheeks from the sun, who was just spraying the spots with a Fenton ecto-removing formula were also tired, they also didn’t seem to regret what happened.

Danny chuckled a bit and thought back to Halloween night (aka yesterday), the three of them had been planning on what to do for that night to make it a very interesting trick or treating experience.

While both Tucker and Danny had spent a good portion of their budget to buy candy (in which only half of it actually went for the trick or treating basket), Sam and Jazz had worked together to create a spooky corridor from the entrance and down to the lab. Jack and Maddie had been invited to talk at some conventions, the convention was actually for horror movie fans and ufo theorists and the sort, so it was nothing too serious but it will keep them out for the following three days, leaving them alone for the best night of the year.

Using that as an opportunity, they made the ghost portal the biggest attraction. Jazz of course had taken some ‘security measures to prevent things from going downside, or so she thought. The corridor that Tuck and Danny had to assemble (girls designed, so they built) guided people through some weird-looking plants and spider webs, also some splats of glow in the dark paint that looked like ectoplasm had been on the paper-made walls. The black light and some of the rumors about the portal made it for a very good-looking spooky place, especially with the lights off.

Danny and Tucker had both dressed up as scarecrows and were sitting about a meter away from the portal, there was a line there that said do not cross and they were supposed to stop any curious kid if they tried to go near. Danny had the candy basket and from time to time he would move and scare some children. Jazz and Sam were taking turns helping people go down while talking like a witch and a vampire, which helped prevent a big amount of people from coming and going.

It seemed to be working, at least until a ghost was detected nearby. Danny turned to look at Tucker who just shrugged and looked at him. Danny was sure the ghost hadn’t entered from the portal because it was closed, but natural portals were now becoming a constant so he still needed to go and check. He transformed and left the basket on the chair they’ve been using to allow Tucker to continue with the act.

Turns out it was just Johnny and Kitty, who had tried to pass as teenagers going trick or treating, they hadn’t really used their ghost powers or influence to get candies and they actually seemed to be having fun, so after negotiating a calm night with the pair Danny went back to his place. He flew around the place once before turning invisible and intangible to give the people outside something to talk about, however, when going back, Tucker was on the floor, placing the candies back on the basket.

“What happened?” Danny asked returning to his human form and helping Tucker with the candies.

“Youngblood,” he said with a frown, “just a moment ago the portal opened and he tried to kidnap the basket, so I tried to stop him, we were pulling on the basket for a moment, who would say that kid almost pulled me into the Zone, however, I negotiated to give him a handful of sweets and the brat just let go of the basket, thus the mess. He took the candies and left but yeah, nothing serious.”

“Well, at least it wasn’t anything worse and no other ghost came out right?” They finished lifting the candies and Danny placed the basket on Tucker’s arms as he sat.

“Yeah, the girls stopped the tours when the alarm went off, Sam just came to make sure I was okay and left, they must be on their way down again” Danny nodded, at least Jazz’s plan had been good so far.

“Let’s keep it spooky then”, said Danny posing again as a scarecrow. It was no surprise that after a couple of children, some teenagers also started showing up, Paulina and Star, Dash, and even Wes walked down to get candies and then left, by ten pm they had run out of candies, and people on the streets with children were less and less.

“Wow, no big incidents tonight, talk about good luck!” said Tucker after they closed the door.

“Yeah, it was also fun, not creepy and full of horror as I was expecting, but it was alright,” said Sam pulling candy from an inside pocket on her vampire cloak.

“And with all the safety measures we took, nobody got hurt, abducted, or lost in the Zone, so there’s that…” said Jazz, cut short by Sam’s scream of pain.

“What in hell…?” Sam had thrown the popsicle she had just removed the cover off to the floor and was looking at one of her fingers covered in blood, she turned to look and Danny and showed him her tongue, for a second he thought she was joking, but then he saw there was also blood there.

Tucker had gone to lift the popsicle from the floor. “That stupid thing bit me,” said Sam, and Tucker retracted from where he was about to pick up the candy. It was Danny who then moved and went to get the candy from the floor; he lifted it and touched the strawberry glassy surface of the candy, only to have it open something like a mouth trying to bite him too…

He then turned around and looked at Tucker “Dude, did the candies enter the Ghost Zone when you were dealing with Youngblood?”

Tucker opened his mouth to answer but then lifted a finger and cursed silently, it was then that they heard people screaming. Danny, Sam, and Jazz shared a look, this was a big problem. In a minute they were making a plan, with a net to pick up the candies the girls were going to visit and or try to locate the people with the candies, Danny and Tucker had to sacrifice their share to replace the contaminated ones, so they left and started doing their own trick or treat route.

Some people were already looking for them, some other people were screaming in their homes, in a matter of minutes there was chaos in the streets of Amity Park. “How many people went to the house today?” asked Danny while trying to catch some of the candies that the people were running from.

“I didn’t keep count,” said Sam, “but it was a lot!”

While she tried to catch some of the candies with the net Danny had an idea. “The shield, people will be able to go into it and it will stop these, let’s get them there” Jazz and Tucker who were also nearby heard him and took off towards the house telling people to follow them.

Jazz made sure to turn on the shield and cover the housing ratio, Tucker was calmly telling people to go in, and just as expected the ghostly candies couldn’t follow. Danny used that moment to go ghost, and tried to use a shield of his own to gather all the candies. These allowed people to go back to their houses, some of them grabbed candies from the non-contaminated pile, but others just left and the ghost shield on the house was turned off.

At that point, Johnny and Kitty showed up on the motorcycle. “Wow, the first time I see treats become tricks on Halloween night,” said Johnny, “but I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he said pointing ad Danny’s shield full of furious candies.

“Why?” asked Danny.

“Candies can only support certain contamination level, they’re not made to keep it for too long, that’s how we can eat the candies, they dissolve and become part of us, but when not part of a ghost and with a constant increase of contamination made by an ectoplasmic shield, they’ll just… boom!” said Kitty as a matter of fact.

Just then Danny looked at the contained candies in the shield, as if Kitty’s words were a command, some candies started exploding like popcorn, Danny let go of the shield, however, the candies didn’t fall, instead, they remained floating and started exploding, splatting candy and ectoplasm everywhere but mostly onto Fenton Works, some of the most colorful ones creating something that looked like fireworks.

Jazz, Sam, and Tucker were already inside, and if the look of horror on Jazz’s face was something to go by, this was going to get him grounded, it didn’t escape him, however, how his friends laughed at the whole thing, Johnny and Kitty went back to the Zone shortly after the show ended, but Danny entered covered in a sweet mixture of candy and ectoplasm.

Jazz had only asked him to make sure the house was clean before their parents arrived, something that by the looks of it was still going to take time. The ectoplasm candy he was trying to get off finally gave out and fell to the floor, he lifted it and placed it inside the ghost proof trash bag they were using, then reaching inside his pocket, Danny pulled out candy, the green-yellow candy screamed at him once and he threw it in his mouth, Tucker and Sam looked at him with disgusted faces, but he just shrugged.

“Someone’s got to eat all those sweets,” he said smiling. Sam, Tucker, and Jazz had found themselves with some ecto-contaminated candies after the whole thing, and Danny was supposed to get rid of them, but the ectoplasm actually gave it a different kind of flavor, he had been unable to keep his share of candies from Halloween, so it was only fair he at least had those.

[dp-marvel94]

The First Night

Summary: For Phic Phight 2021, Prompt by @amabsis  A sixteen years old Danny Fenton helps his fourteen year old counterpart through his first night as a ghost.

Word Count: 7,795

Also on AO3 and fanfiction.net

Prompt: Season 3 Danny Phantom gets transported to the past and only Season 1 Danny Fenton can see him

“That’s not how it happened.” Danny frowned, looking through one of Clockwork’s time windows. 

The window showed the empty lab as a fourteen year old Danny stumbled out of the newly activated portal. The boy was hyperventilating, green eyes widening as he stared in horror at his glowing hands. In Clockwork’s lair, Danny shivered; he couldn’t hear the words but he could guess them. No. No. No. A sting of panicked denials from the boy in the scene. Of course, Danny could guess them; he’d been in the same position, felt the same fear. But….

“Where’s Sam and Tucker?” The sixteen year old quietly asked, his heart aching. He turned to look at the Ancient ghost who was floating beside him. “They’re supposed to be there.”

Clockwork frowned. “That isn’t your timeline.” He motioned towards the window, for Danny to continue watching.

Across the screen, the other Danny was stumbling across the lab before throwing the bathroom door open. He froze in front of the mirror, his green eyes wide with fear. He reached forward, seeming to verify he was in fact looking at a mirror. Then the boy recoiled. His chest heaved, eyes watering. 

“This is a timeline where you were alone during your accident.” His mentor explained.

In front of the pair, there was a flash of light. A ring of light formed around the other Danny’s waist, turning him human. He stumbled, gasping as he touched down. The boy stared at his now bare hands. Relief passed over his face for an instant...before his hand disappeared. The other Danny’s mouth opened in what was likely a scream.

Danny ripped his eyes away, unable to watch any longer as his own memories of his accident hit him. So very similar except...Sam and Tucker were beside him. The goth’s teary eyes as she realized he was a ghost. Their frantic questions and panicked footsteps as he rushed to the bathroom. Their shock and then relief when he turned human. Tucker’s hand on his wrist, checking his pulse. The technogeek’s surprised scream as Danny’s hand turned intangible and fell through his friend’s hand. Renewed panic. Sam’s comforting hands on his back. His friends helping him stumble up the stairs and to his bedroom.

In Clockwork’s lair, Danny shivered, feeling his eyes water. His mentor’s hundreds of clocks ticked around the pair, the Master of Times’ comforting arm around him.

Danny remained frozen like that for a while, the memories replaying. His accident had been terrifying and stressful, the source of many nightmares but….he’d had his friends with him. 

His heart clenched, looking up at the screen. The image showed his other self, huddled on his bed and crying. 

Danny hadn’t been alone but...the boy on the screen, his other self, had been. The sixteen year old frowned. He could hardly imagine that yet it had happened to another version of himself, was happening in front of him and….

“What will happen to him now?” The boy asked, his stomach flopping with worry.

Clockwork remained silent for a moment, his brow furrowed as if in thought. Then he turned red eyes onto Danny. “It is not a favorable timeline.” The old ghost mused sadly. “If things continue, he will never tell his friends. He will push them away and his family as well. It will be a sad, lonely existence. And likely a short one.”

Danny paled, eyes widening. That sounded horrible, painful. He could imagine it, feeling so isolated and afraid. He wouldn’t wish that on this worst enemy and….he shivered… while the circumstances were vastly different, something reminded him far too much of another alternative timeline he’d seen, one Clockwork had diverted him from.

The boy looked at the screen, frowning. “Can you do something, Clockwork?”

The older ghost looked down at him, frowning thoughtfully. He tapped his chin, humming. “I myself cannot...however….”

Danny perked up. “What is it?” Clockwork floated purposefully away, holding up a finger. “Clockwork?”

His mentor flew to a rack along the wall and grabbed a familiar looking device. The older ghost returned, depositing the gear shaped medallion in Danny’s hands.

The boy furrowed in brow in confusion before realization hit him. He looked up, frowning. “Me? What can I do?”

Clockwork motioned to the screen again. “You can ensure he doesn’t spend his first night as a ghost alone.”

Danny looked at the window, remembering. His first night after the accident...watching a movie with Sam and Tucker. Them comforting him while chills wracked his body, his limbs turning invisible and intangible against his will. On the bed, his younger counterpart was still crying.

In the lair, the boy steeled himself and put on the medallion. He turned to the Master of Time. “Alright. What do I need to do?”

Clockwork nodded, looking pleased. “Keep that on. It will prevent anyone other than your alternative self from seeing you. In the morning, I will summon a portal for you to return here.”

Danny tilted his head. “So….if I take this off….?”

His mentor raised a brow. “You will remain in place, though visible to everyone.”

The boy blinked. “That’s not how it worked last time.”

The Master of Time just gave him a mischievous look and motioned to the screen. “Go on. I trust you will not divulge too much of the future.”

Danny rolled his eyes, used to his mentor’s evasiness. But at the same time….his stomach flopped with nerves. Could he do this? Could he actually do this? He’d never been that good at comforting people but....the boy he was going to help wasn’t just anyone. He took a deep breath, squared his shoulders, and floated through the window.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Danny blinked, blue light swirling around him. A moment later, he was floating in a dark bedroom. His eyes roved over the familiar surroundings: his NASA posters and rocket models, scattered books and clothes, half finished homework on the desk. And on the bed….the sound of crying hitched and the other Danny shivered.

Slowly, the boy sat up. His arms wrapped around himself, as if he was cold. And Danny knew, he likely was; his very presence always chilled the room when he was in ghost form, and it had just gotten more intense since his ice powers had activated. On the bed, his younger self’s eyes widened in fear, his mouth falling open.

Instantly, Danny was hit with a sense of dread. He helped his hands out in front of him. “Wait. Hold on. It’s-”

The younger Danny’s eyes flickered from the ghost to his door. “Ghost!” He screamed, chest heaving.

The older boy paled. “No. Stop. I’m-”

Heavy feet pounded down the hall and the bedroom door flung open, the light of the hallway spilling into the dark room. “Where’s the ghost?!” The large ghost hunter demanded, holding an ectogun.

Shakily, the younger Danny pointed across the room, directly at his older counterpart. His dad’s head turned, eyes narrowing. Then his brow furrowed in confusion. “Where is it?”

Danny flinched at being called an it, his heart pounding anxiously. Self consciously, he turned invisible.

His younger self’s eyes darted from his father to the spot the ghost had been occupying. “You didn’t...you didn’t see…?” His voice raised up in question and he rubbed his eyes.

Danny shifted nervously in the air. The man was still staring through him, unseeing. And his younger self was still gaping, his fear turning into confusion. 

“What is it, son?” Dad turned, looking at the younger boy in concern.

The younger Danny blinked rapidly in disbelief. “I guess….I was seeing things.” He frowned. “Must have been a nightmare.”

His dad lowered the gun. “Do you want to talk about it?”

The boy shook his head, frowning. “No. I…” He shivered and then looked at his hand, his eyes widening. “I’m...I’m fine.” He stuffed the appendage under his covers. “It’s fine. I just want to…” He faked a yawn. “Go back to sleep.” He blinked up at Dad, trying to look innocent.

The man furrowed his brow, looking unsure. “If you’re sure…”

The boy stretched, yawning exaggeratedly. “Yeah. It’s fine...I’m...just gonna..go back to sleep.” His gaze flickered from the door to where Danny was floating invisibly, before he gave Dad a sheepish smile.

Dad still looked uncertain but after a moment, he stepped back. “Alright. Sleep well, Danno.”

The boy nodded. “Night, Dad.”

The man closed the door, seemingly leaving his son alone. On the bed, Danny’s younger self put his head in his hands. “I’m losing it. First the stupid…” He shivered, again, hands disappearing. “Stupid body. Stupid portal.” He gritted his teeth. “Now I’m seeing things.”

Danny floated forward, his heart sinking. He needed to do something, to comfort his increasingly distressed younger counterpart. He stopped, hovering at the edge of the bed. With a thought, he returned to visibility. “You’re not seeing things.”

The younger Danny’s head whipped up, his eyes widening. He opened his mouth, likely to shout again.

His own eyes widening, the ghost boy reflexively covered the human’s mouth. “Please don’t scream.”

The other boy shook his head, his eyes pinching closed. He whimpered.

Danny’s lip trembled, sudden regret hitting him. “No. Don’t be scared. I’m here to help you.”

This younger self shook his head again. He was shaking, with fear and stress.

“Danny. Please. You’re safe.” The older boy begged.

His counterpart stiffened at his name, his eyes slowly peeking open and then widening in realization. His brow furrowed in confusion as he searched the other boy’s face.

Slowly, Danny removed his hand.

His younger self’s mouth opened and closed. Finally, he muttered. “Why do you look like me?”

Danny swallowed, preparing himself. “ ‘Cause I am you.” He said, as kindly as he could.

The other Danny blinked, frowning. “But….you’re a ghost?”

His older self looked down at his glowing hands. He raised a brow. “Yeah? So are you.”

The younger Danny tensed, his shoulders raising. “No. I’m not. I’m not a ghost. That’s ridiculous. I’m...I’m me. And you’re….” He pointed. “How do I know you’re not tricking me?”

Danny sighed, running fingers through his hair. “Alright….how about this?” He summoned the light of his transformation. A breath later and he was heavy and warm. 

His younger self’s head whipped back and he let out a squeak.

Danny gave him a disarming smile and held out a hand. “I have a heartbeat, see?”

Tentatively, the other boy reached forward. His brow furrowed in concentration. Then awed surprise covered his face. “I can feel it.”

“Yeah.” Danny smiled. “I’m alive, obviously. But I’m a ghost too. Just like you.”

“Okay.” His younger self took a breath. “Okay. But...how?”

“Well….the accident…” He started.

The other boy shook his head. “No. I…..” He bit his lip. “If you’re me then...then, tell me something only I would know.”

Danny sighed, eyeing a spot on the bed. “Can I sit here?” His counterpart rose a brow before shuffling over. His older self then huffed, flopping onto the bed. “So… I never told Sam and Tucker this but….really, I wanted to get the portal to work so Mom and Dad would be proud of me.” He looked down, rubbing his neck. “They were so upset that the portal didn’t start and….I hated seeing them like that. They’d been spending so much time working on it and...I thought if I got it to work they’d be so happy and they’d be proud of me...but...well…” He bit his lip. “You know what happened.”

There was silence for a while, only the sound of both boy’s breathing. Then the younger Danny finally spoke. “Okay. That’s….damn.... That’s heavy. That’s...that’s a lot. But…. I get it. I...I know I’d probably never tell someone else that but it’s true so….” He sighed. “I believe you.”

Danny nodded. “Good.” He rubbed the back of his neck, meeting his counterpart’s eyes. “It would have been super awkward if you didn’t believe me after that.”

The other boy shook his head, even half smiling. “Yeah. So...you’re me but” His eyes trailed his older self’s body again. “….from the future?”

“Yep. From about two years from now. I’m sixteen.”

The younger Danny nodded, biting his lip. “So...two years and I can still...uhh...because of the accident...I can still….”

“Turn into a ghost?” His older counterpart offered.

The boy flinched. “No. I’m not...whatever that was, I’m not a...a ghost.” Almost as if his core sensed his denial, another shiver wracked his body. He flickered intangible and started sinking through the bed with a distressed cry.

Danny reached forward, turning his own hand intangible to grab the younger boy’s wrist. With a combination of ghostly enhanced strength and transferred weightlessness, he pulled the other out of the bed. After a few seconds, his counterpart returned to solidity and Danny let go, allowing him to drop back down onto the mattress.

The younger Danny gritted his teeth, wrapping his arms around his waist. “Stupid...whatever this is!”

“They’re ghost powers, because you’re-” Danny started to explain.

His younger self glared. “Not a ghost. I’m just….sick..or something. The stupid portal-” He shivered again, this time light sparking around his waist.

The older boy frowned, knowing what it signified. At the same time, a memory hit him. Himself sitting on the bed in the dark, that same light trying to overtake him. Heart pounding with terrified, panicked fear. Sam and Tucker trying to calm him down.

“No. NO. What’s happening?!” The younger boy panted, fearfully. “No. Stop!” He pinched his eyes closed, as if trying to push the feeling away. The ring of light disappeared for a second before flaring again. Then he groaned and curled in on himself. “No. Stop! I don’t...I don’t want..” His brow furrowed as he forced the light away again but it just reappeared. “Not again! Please. Stop. I’m not… I’m not….” His breath heaved, tears starting to well in his eyes.

Danny’s core ached at the sight. “Danny…” He started, quietly saying his other self’s name.

The younger boy looked up, glaring. “Stop just staring! Help me.”

“I’m trying.” Danny muttered, feeling chastised. That earned him an annoyed growl, which he completely deserved. So he took a breath, steeling himself. He could do this. 

The boy put a hand on his younger counterpart’s arm. “Don’t fight it.”

“What?” His alternative self demanded.

“That light...your body’s trying to turn into your ghost form.” Danny explained.

“Ghost form?! But… I don’t wanna be a ghost!” There was another groan as the light flared again.

“I know.” The older half ghost squeezed, comfortingly. “I know. I know...I remember how scary this is. But...you’ll be okay, Danny. It’ll be okay. So don’t fight it. Let it happen.”

“But...I don’t...I don’t want this. Please! Make it stop! It hurts.”

“I know. I know.” Danny soothed. “But it’ll stop hurting if you stop fighting and change.”

“Please. Please don’t make me.” The younger boy begged, a tear falling from his eyes.

“Listen to me.” Danny insisted. “I promise, you’ll be okay. You’ll be able change back after. And your body needs this. It’s trying to get used to your new powers. But you’re safe. I’m right here. You can do this.”

Shakily, the younger Danny looked up, meeting his counterpart’s eyes. “You promise?”

Danny gave him a half smile. “I’m here, aren’t I? I’ve been through this already and I turned out okay. So will you.”

The other boy nodded, his brow unfurrowing slightly. He breathed out and the white light dancing over his skin coalesced into a ring. It spread, up towards his head and down towards his feet. Danny shivered as the light passed over the arm he was holding, the cold reaching out to touch his own core. The flash left him blinking spots out of his vision. Then he was staring at the familiar ghost boy, floating across from him.

The younger Danny frowned, staring down at his hands with a heart broken expression. “So...it’s...it’s true. I am a ghost.”

“Yes.” Danny said simply.

His counterpart wrinkled his nose, his fists balling. “So I’m some kind of...some kinda...undead freak.”

Danny pulled his hand away, the words painfully jabbing at his heart. “You’re not a freak. You’re just different now. And that’s okay.”

“No it’s not.” His alternative self snapped. “I’m freaking dead.”

“Well...that’s complicated but-” 

The younger Danny crossed his arms, cutting him off. “Well, excuse me. Apparently, I can turn back to normal so I’m not actually dead. Except I’m still a freaking ghost and..and…” His chest heaved. “Mom and Dad freaking hunt ghosts.” His eyes widened. “Ghosts are supposed to be monsters. Unfeeling violent monsters. I’m...I’m gonna…” He covered his mouth, horror struck. “Oh god. What if-”

“Danny.” The older Danny’s hands were on both of the younger’s shoulders. “Look at me.” With a thought, he summoned his own rings and transformed. “Actually look at me.” The younger boy’s mouth snapped shut as he did so. “I’ve been like this for two years. Two years. And I’m still me. I’m not some monster who hurts people for no reason. I still feel things. I still have all my memories. I’m still me.”

His counterpart frowned. “But...I saw….you’re….we’re….still alive too.”

Danny shook his head. “I’ve met other ghosts too. And...Mom and Dad are wrong. Ghosts are just like the living. Yeah, they’re different but….they’re still people too.”

The younger Danny bit his lip. “But..that’s...that could be a trick or….”

The older boy squeezed his shoulders. “Actually, it was a ghost who sent me here.” 

His counterpart frowned. “What? A ghost?”

Danny nodded. “He’s my mentor. He...he saved me. He saved everyone.” He looked down at the last part, his heart clenching at the memory. His hand stretched out, reaching towards his tied up friends and family. The roar of the explosion, the pressure wave throwing him back, the smoke. Then suddenly suspended in the air, Clockwork in front of him. The older ghost waving and his loved ones appearing, unconscious but alive and unharmed.

The boy shook his head, forcing the memory away. “He watches over the timelines so that explains how I’m here. And he couldn’t come here himself but…” He smiled at his younger self. “Neither of us wanted you to have to go through this alone.”

The other Danny starred, looking bewildered for a long moment. Then he sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Wow...that’s a lot...”

“Yeah, it is.” Danny nodded, agreeing.

Across from him, the younger boy looked overwhelmed, like he was still unsure what to think of all this. His brow furrowed in thought as he picked at his glowing gloves. He then shivered as his hands turned invisible again. He sighed again. “I still hate this. I feel so weird.”

“I know but...you’ll get used to it soon, I promise.” Danny comforted.

His other self just huffed.

Danny bit his lip, stomach flopping. As he said, he did remember the feeling, how strange being in ghost form was at first. It was unnatural and stifling; the randomness of his powers scared him. And there was seemingly nothing to be done, only wait until he got used to his new normal. But right now, he only had one night with this version of himself and words would only do so much. 

The older boy glanced out the window, the stars twinkling through it. His brow furrowed. Maybe if he could show his younger self….. Danny floated up from his cross legged position.

The younger Danny looked up, questioningly. “What’re you doing?”

Danny offered his hand to pull the other boy up. “I want to show you something.”

His counterpart raised a brow but took the hand. Surprisingly smoothly, he floated to his feet. That is, until he noticed he was floating. He wobbled in the air, eyes widening. “Woah!”

Danny grabbed his other arm, steadying him. “There you go. You’ve got it.”

The younger boy stabilized, his gaze flickering from his feet and back to his other self’s face. “Alright. Okay. Maybe that wasn’t so bad.”

The older boy smiled. “Good.” He motioned toward the window. “Let’s go.”

“Where?” The younger Danny tilted his head.

Danny smiled wider. “We’re going flying.”

His counterpart’s eyes widened in surprise but he didn’t ask any questions, even as Danny pulled him towards the window. The older boy flickered intangible, the power passing over his companion as well and they both phased through the window. The younger gasped but still allowed himself to be pulled along as Danny started ascending. In ten seconds, he rose at least a hundred feet; all the while, the younger Danny watched him curiously.

Danny paused, looking out over the town. “Wow. Look at that view.” He smiled. Stretched out below him was Amity Park. His city. His home. He could see all of it. “There’s the park.” He pointed in front of him. “And Casper High.” He turned, pointing slightly to the left of the school. “The Nasty Burger. And-”

His younger self’s hand, which he was still holding, squeezed, the grip almost painful.

Danny looked down, suddenly worried. “What is it?”

“I don’t...I don’t like this.” His voice trembled. “We’re so...so high.”

“Oh..alright. Sorry…” The older boy frowned, concerned and slightly confused. He didn’t remember being this afraid of heights the first time he flew. But then again, this was a different timeline than his. But still….his ghostly tail flickered under him, nervously.

The younger half ghost’s eyes widened and he jerked away. “What the hell happened to your legs?” Danny glanced down at the same time his counterpart did. The younger stared at his own furiously twitching ghostly tail. “What the hell happened to my legs?” 

 Danny held out his hands. “Hey, it’s okay. That’s normal.”

“Normal!?” The other Danny shouted. “Nothing about this is normal!”

“I know but-” He was cut off by a scream.

Below him, the younger’s mouth fell open in horror as white light flashed around his waist. Before he could breath, the ring passed over him and he turned human. Gravity reengaged and he was falling.

The scene seemed to play out in front of Danny in slow motion. His younger self’s hand stretched out in front of him, eyes wide with terror. Danny reached and dove, his ghostly tail trailing behind him. His heart pounded as he strained, flying faster than gravity could pull him down.

Seconds that felt like minutes later, the older boy grabbed his counterpart. His arm reached around the boy’s chest from the back, looped under the other’s arm pits. Danny resisted against gravity and the pair jerked to a stop.

The younger Danny panted. He shook against the other’s chest until he found his voice. “What the hell?! Are you trying to kill me again?”

“I’m sorry!” Danny flinched. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t...I didn’t think this through.”

“Ya think!” The other yelled, angry struggling to cover his fear. “I’m scared of heights!”

The older Danny frowned. “No you’re not.” He’d never been afraid of heights.

“Well, maybe you’re not. But I’m not you!”

Danny’s brow furrowed at the words. He wanted to comment that that wasn’t exactly correct but…. That felt like the wrong thing to say. Instead, he sighed. “ Alright. How about...let’s just go home.”

The younger didn’t say anything as they slowly descended. The ops center grew closer and closer. Soon, the two were floating just inches above the metal surface. Danny let go of his counterpart and he landed on his feet on the roof.

The ghost remained floated, nervously rubbing his neck as his counterpart turned to face him. The younger frowned. He punched his older version in the arm, a little too hard to be playful. “No offense but that sucked.”

Danny bit his lip. “I am so sorry.” He looked down, cheeks coloring with shame. “I really screwed up. I’m so bad at this.”

The other crossed his arms. “Dude. You should at least know what not to do, based on what happened your first time.”

“My first?” Danny’s brow furrowed in question. Then a realization hit him. “This didn’t happen to me.” He motioned between himself and the younger halfa. “I’m from a different timeline. Dimension?” He shook his head. “Sam and Tucker were in that lab during my accident. And they stayed with me my first night as a half ghost.”

The younger Danny’s expression slowly softened. He uncrossed his arms. “Half ghost?”

“Yeah. That’s what we came up with for this.” He motioned to himself. “The other ghosts call me a halfa though.”

The younger nodded. “Alright. So you're still me. But from another timeline. And older.”

“That’s right.” Danny agreed. He shifted nervously in the air. “Like I said, I wasn’t alone tonight. And...I didn’t want you to be either. And I’m sorry I messed up. I really do want to help so….” He bit his lip. “Whatever you need. If you want to talk about stuff, or get some pointers on your powers, or a distraction? I’ll do whatever you want, okay?”

The other Danny studied him for a moment. “I think...I just want a distraction for now. Maybe we can talk later.”

Danny nodded, touching down on the roof. With a thought, he turned human. He looked up. “That stars are a good distraction... or something else?”

His counterpart smiled. “No. Star gazing’s good. I can always ramble about space.”

The two flopped down on the roof and the younger Danny did just that. He pointed out constellations, talked about far away stars and planets and blackholes. Danny listened. It was nice, being on the other side of this. So this is what he sounded like when he got starstruck. It was also wonderful to see his alternative self relax, to see the corner of his lips turn up into a smile. Then, for just a second, his freckles lit up green. 

The younger half ghost stopped in the middle of his sentence, brow furrowing. His eyes flared green and they widened. “Holy...what that…” He reached upward with one hand, as if he could touch the sky. “What  am I seeing?” He turned to look at his older version.

Danny furrowed his brow for a moment before realizing. He’d long grown used to it; his vision was enhanced at night in either form, even without his eyes glowing. But still... he smiled, turning his eyes back to the night sky, deeper and more vibrate than any human could see. “That’s what the night looks like to a ghost.”

“What?” The younger breathed.

“Ghosts can see better than humans in the dark. Like a hundred times better. So that’s what the sky looks like to you now.” 

“But...it’s…. It looks like...when we go to Aunt Alicia’s and...there’s just so many stars but...there’s more colors? And...it’s deeper?” He pointed. “And that’s the Milky Way!”

Danny chuckled. “Yeah.”

The younger boy sat up, looking down at him. “So...if my eyes are glowing…. ‘Cause apparently, that’s something they do now?....It always looks like this.”

The older nodded. “Actually, it always looks like that to me but….yeah.” Danny sighed, looking wistfully. “That’s my second favorite thing about being half ghost. The first is being able to fly.” He met his counterpart’s eyes. “The stars look even more incredible if you’re above the clouds.” He grinned, teeth gleaming. “But the best view is in space.”

His counterpart’s eyes widened. “Space!? You’ve been to…. You’ve been to space?!”

Danny nodded. “Yeah but...I shouldn’t spoil too much. Just be careful. Don’t try it until you know you’ve got a handle on transforming….actually not until after you met...uh...our mentor so he can bail you out if something happens.”

The younger tapped his chin. “This mysterious mentor again. You gonna tell me who he is?”

“Probably shouldn’t. He won’t be happy if I tell you too much about the future.”

The younger Danny hummed. Then he looked back at the sky. He pointed. “Look! A meteor!”

Danny traced the path with his eyes until it fizzled out. “Did you make a wish?” His counterpart nodded and the older raised a brow. “Are you gonna tell me?”

His alternative self turned. “Hey. You know it won’t come true if you tell someone else.”

“I’m not exactly someone else.”

“But you’re not, not someone else.” The younger chuckled. Then his brow furrowed. “So….you said in your timeline, Sam and Tucker were with you tonight?”

“Yeah. They...We were all really scared but...they helped me figure out what was happening.” He sighed. “I wouldn’t have made it this far without them.”

The younger turned back to look at the sky, frowning.

“What is it?” Danny asked.

“They’re gonna think I’m a freak.” His alternative self whispered. 

Danny frowned. “You don’t really think that.”

The younger raised a brow, as if to say seriously. Then he shivered as a hand turned intangible and sunk into the roof. He groaned. “Not again.” He pulled the limb out and frowned as his hand turned invisible again. “Really? This isn’t going to freak them out?”

The older sighed. “I mean honestly...it might, a little but...they’ll want to understand and help you.”

The other Danny just huffed as his arm reappeared.

“Haven’t they always been there for you?” Danny asked.

His counterpart’s expression softened. “Yeah, they have.”

“So trust them now. They’re your friends.” 

“But…” He worried his lip. “Oh god. How am I even supposed to have that conversation?”

Danny frowned, thinking. He didn’t know how to answer. He hadn’t had to tell them but…. “I guess just go for it. They’ll believe you. And remember they’ll always have your back.”

The other boy said nothing for a long while. Then he glared as his hand disappeared again. “How do I get this to stop?”

The older look at the outline of the invisible limb. “Well….your body’s still adjusting to your powers so it’s going to do that for a while-”

“Wow. That’s a big help.” The younger Danny interrupted.

Danny continued, with an eye roll. “But...for me, it got better after I started practicing my powers.”

The other’s eyes widened and he sat up. “You’re not serious.”

“I am. I had to learn how to turn invisible and intangible on purpose. It was like...my powers wanted to be used. They're a part of me. I couldn't just ignore them and hope they went away. I had to use them."

The younger shook his head. "That sounds wrong. I mean...these are ghost powers." He emphasized the word with worry and just a hint of disgust; the implication was clear.

Danny frowned but his voice was patient and kind. "Yeah, they are. But being a ghost doesn't make you bad, Danny. It's just...a different way of existing."

The fourteen year old studied him for a long moment. Finally, he said. "You really believe that."

The other boy nodded. "Yeah, I do." 

It had taken a while. Practicing his powers with his friends and seeing how comfortable and accepting they were of him. Meeting, talking to, and learning from other ghosts. It was hard to unlearn a lifetime of biases ingrained by his parents and he still felt uncertain at times but it was getting better. (He'd even made headway in changing his parent's beliefs about ghosts but that was another story.)

Across from him, the young Danny sighed. "Alright. That's...I don't know what to think of that but… I guess you can give me some pointers at least and...I'll think about what you said."

"Really?!" Danny's eyes lit up excitedly and he sat up.

The younger joined him in a sitting position. "Yeah." He sighed. "I guess this is the part where you show me the ropes."

"Okay." The older rubbed his hands together. "First… you're gonna need to change into your ghost form." 

His counterpart's eyes widened. "No. Nah uh. No way."

"Your powers are easier to use if you transform. Plus…" Danny raised a brow. "Do you want to randomly change into a ghost during dinner?"

The younger paled before conceding. "Alright. I'll do it. But…. How?"

The older boy hummed, considering. "Okay so…." He placed his hand on his chest. "You know that ball of cold right here?" 

His counterpart gave him a confused look. "What are you talking about?"

Danny frowned, leaning forward. "In the center of your chest, a little to the right of your heart." He gently grabbed the other boy's hand and placed it on his own chest. "Can you feel it? It kinda hums like...well...it reminds me of the refrigerator…. 'Cause it buzzes, sounds kinda electrical, and it’s cold…."

The younger Danny's brow furrowed in thought. After a long moment, slight realization lit his eyes. "Yeah. Okay. I think I'm feeling...something."

Danny nodded. "That's my core. It's where my powers come from." At the other's understanding nod, he continued. "You have the same thing inside of you." 

His counterpart frowned, lowering his hand. “Of course I do.”

The older’s expression softened. “You don’t have to be afraid of this. Your core is a part of you. Just like your heart or your brain. It’s an organ that controls your powers; that’s all it is.”

Honestly, that was a simplification. Even with the very basic knowledge he’d learned at the Far Frozen, Danny knew his core did much more than regulate his powers. It helped him think and remember, to sense and respond to things around him. But right now, his other self just needed to know to not be afraid of a part of himself.

“If you say so.” The younger looked down. He moved his hand up to his own chest, brow furrowing.

Danny glanced at the other’s chest. “Now, can you feel it now?”

“Yeah.” The other Danny confirmed, still frowning. “So...how do I...uhh...transform?”

The older nodded. “Close your eyes.” The younger boy did so and Danny continued. “Really focus on that cold, that energy. Feel it swirling around in your chest. It’s pulsing and buzzing, deep inside you. Now…” The boy took a breath. “Reach out and touch that cold with your mind. Wrapped your hands around it and...pull. Pull it to the surface.”

His counterpart’s brow furrowed in concentration; clearly he was listening to the words and trying to put them into practice. His nose wrinkled, focus increasing. Then the younger Danny gasped. White light danced over his skin, forming a ring around his chest. Surprised, his eyes popped open and then widened as his gaze fell on the ring.

Danny smiled encouragingly. “That’s it. Now just let it pass over you.”

The younger nodded, taking a breath. The ring passed a few heartbeats later, leaving a ghost floating across from Danny.

“You did it.” The older congratulated.

The younger Danny looked down at his hands, flipping them over and examining the glow of his gloves. “I did….” His brow furrowed. “That actually wasn’t that bad.” He lowered his hands. “Still weird though.”

Danny chuckled. “You’ll get used to it.”

His counterpart didn’t reply to that, instead asking. “So what now?”

The older Danny transformed into his ghost form. “I guess, I’ll go over the basic powers and help you practice for a bit.”

The younger Danny nodded, relaxing his shoulders with forced confidence. “Let’s do this.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The two spend the next hour practicing. Danny explained the three basic powers: invisibility, intangibility, and flight. He demonstrated each. Flickering invisible, phasing through the metal pillars on top of the ops center, flying circles above the roof.

“Now you try.” Danny encouraged after showing off each power.

His younger self did try, despite his anxiety. The displays of his powers were spotty. He flickered in and out of visibility like a dying light bulb. Random parts of his body turned intangible and he furrowed his power, concerting great effort to turn to his whole body intangible. But he was making progress. 

“There you go!” Danny cheered as his alternative self successfully phased through the satellite dish twice in a row. He grinned, offering the other boy a high five.

The younger Danny returned the gesture. “Yeah!”

The practice continued, the new halfa’s confidence growing. It made Danny happy to see his counterpart growing more comfortable, even if his control was still laughable. His body continued flickering invisible and intangible to the younger’s frustration. The older half ghost figured things would be like that for a while, as the younger’s body adjusted to his new core and powers. But the prospect of him spending less time confused and less time afraid of his powers was a bright one. And another bright prospect….

Danny glanced at the air just below his counterpart’s glowing boots. He smiled. “You’ve got a great handle on floating.”

The younger Danny looked down, browning furrowing. Then his eyes widened in realization. He wobbled in the air.

Danny reached out to steady him. “Hey, don’t think about it too hard. Just let your body do what it will. Flying’s natural to us ghosts.”

His counterpart frowned. Clearly, he didn’t like being called a ghost again but he didn’t comment. Instead, he straightened and focused on his older self’s face. “Alright. I’ll do that, just… let my body do it’s thing.”

“Good.” Danny patted him on the shoulder. He offered a half smile. “Let’s fly. I promise I won’t go too high this time.

The older half ghost did as he said, leading his younger self in a circle around the ops center while floating only about five feet above the roof. 

After a few circles, he let go, flying in front of the younger. Giving a mischievous grin, he glanced back over his shoulder. “Let’s go a little faster.”

The younger Danny raised a brow, a smile sneaking onto his face. He increased his speed, inching in front of the other boy. In return, Danny smiled and flew faster himself. He pulled forward, in front of the other boy. The younger’s slight smile grew and he darted forward, faster still.

Just like that, a race started. The two ghosts circled the roof, chasing each other. Slowly, smiles grew into laughter. Danny snickered, dodging around the satellite dish. Seconds later, his younger self phased through. The older flew higher, his legs morphing into a ghostly tail as he twisted back around to fly in the other direction. The other Danny let out a laugh, reaching for him but just missing. Danny dove down, phasing through the roof with his counterpart following seconds later. He passed by the fridge, before darting up through the roof again.

Danny flew about about five feet up and then froze as another shooting star careened across the sky. He marveled for just a second before a cold body slammed into him. The air weezed out of his lungs and he let out a cry as the pair tumbled, head over heels. 

With some effort, Danny slowed the tumble. He looked down, recognizing the arms were wrapped around his chest and the shaking body they were connected to. The older halfa ghost put hand on the younger’s back. “Hey. It’s okay.”

The other Danny looked up. He was laughing. “Oh man...this is ridiculous.” He let go, slowly backing up. “But I really needed that.”

Danny smiled. “No problem. I’m happy you’re having a good time.”

The younger raised a hand to rub the back of his neck, looking sheepish. “Yeah well...thanks.” He glanced down, paling as he realized they were floating three stories above the street. Danny took his hand, leading him back to the roof.

“So do you want to practice some more or….” The older started once both had touched down on the roof. Then the younger yawned. The corner of Danny’s lip turned up. “I guess that answers my question.”

The other boy yawned, stretching. “Yeah. Let’s go to bed.” He glanced down. “Oh uh…. Should I turn back or….”

“We can just phase into your bedroom. That’s less noisy than climbing down the steps.”

“Yeah. Okay.” The younger Danny nodded in agreement. His older self phased through the roof and he followed.

Seconds later, the two halfas were floating inside of Danny Fenton’s bedroom. With a flash of light, the older turned human. 

The younger frowned. “How do I turn back?”

“Oh, right.” Danny bit his lip, considering. “So where your heart is...there should be this little warm spot. I kinda think of it as a candle flame. You want to coax that, make it bigger so you’re warm and heavy and-” He was cut off by a flash.

The younger Danny touched down. “That was a lot easier than the other way around.”

Danny shrugged. “Figures. You’re more used to being a human than a ghost.”

“Yeah.” The younger sat on the bed. “So I’m going to go to sleep then. What about you?” His lips turned down. “Are you leaving or…?”

Danny shook his head. “Not until the morning.” He walked over to the closet. “I’ll use your sleeping bag if you don’t mind.”

“Go for it.” The younger was already lying down. He watched sleepily as Danny retrieved the sleeping bag and settled on the floor. He yawned. “Good night.”

“Good night.” Danny hummed in return.

Soon, the younger Danny was snoring. The older laid still for a few minutes, mind going over all that had happened tonight. But his thought stilled, fatigue overtaking him as well. He sighed happily, falling asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Danny drifted in sleep, his mind floating through dreams. Not nightmares for once but pleasant ones. Having a picnic with his friends and family. Making cookies with Clockwork. Flying through space. He floated up, out of the depths of sleep. Awareness of the waking world slowly enveloped him. Morning light on his face. Warm, thick fabric around him. The hardness of...the floor? His brow furrowed but he just buried his face in his pillow.

Then there was a thump behind him. Danny jerked, rolling over. He squinted, eyes falling on a figure less than two feet in front of him. He frowned. It was….himself?

“Ouch.” The boy groaned. “How the heck did I end up under the bed...” He trailed off, eyes falling on Danny. “Oh...it’s you. That...all that really happened.”

Danny’s mind finally caught up as he remembered. Last night. Clockwork sending him through the time window. Talking his younger self through his second transformation into a ghost. Trying to take him flying. Stargazing with him. Demonstrating his ghost powers and helping his young counterpart practice.

Danny hummed. “Yep. Really here.” The corner of his lip turned up. “And I guess you phased through the bed in your sleep.”

The younger grumbled. “I thought practicing was supposed to help.”

“It will...just not overnight. Like I said, your body’s still trying to adjust. It’ll take time so be patient.”

The other Danny groaned. “Great.”

“I know it sucks but you’ll get through it.” Danny promised.

His counterpart didn’t reply. Instead, he stood up and then laid back down on his bed. His eyes flickered to the window and the light streaming through it. He glanced down at his older self. “So...it’s morning.”

“Yeah. I don’t know when my portal will open but it should be soon.”

The younger Danny nodded soberly.  “And...I guess you can’t tell me much more about the future.”

“No. I can’t.” Danny said, feeling guilty.

If he could, there’s a lot he would say. About the ghosts he’d fight. About Vlad. About Valerie. About his parents. But Clockwork trusted him and….

“Okay.” The younger sighed. “But...I’ll be okay, right?”

Slowly, Danny sat up. He studied his younger self for a bit before smiling. “You’ll be okay.” His brow furrowed, considering. “Yeah, everything’s not always perfect…” He remembered his many ghost fights. Valerie’s grudge against him. His parent’s mistrust. All of the headaches Vlad had caused him. 

“But I’ve done and seen so many incredible things.” Saving the town. Meeting Clockwork, Frostbite, Dora, Pandora. Dating Valerie and his truces with the Red huntress. Slowly changing his parents’ opinions on ghosts. Meeting and saving Danielle. And all the while….“ And Sam and Tucker have been with me, the whole time. We’ve only gotten closer since my accident. We’re team Phantom and we’ve helped so many people and learned so much. Really just...it’s been incredible and…. I know it will be that same for you.” Danny finished with complete conviction.

His younger self considered his words for a long time before he raised a brow. “Team Phantom?”

Danny smirked. “That’s a spoiler.”

The other Danny huffed before his expression softened. “Alright that’s….” He sat up and ran a hand through his hair. “All of this had been so unbelievable but...I still believe you.” He sighed. “And I’m going to tell Sam and Tucker about my accident.

Danny’s eyes widened, his lips turning up. “Really?”

“Yeah. You’ve convinced me. ‘Cause you were right last night. They have alway been there for me so...thanks for reminding me.”

The older boy smiled. “You’re welcome.”

Danny stayed like that for a moment, smiling and watching his younger self with satisfaction. Faintly, he felt the medallion around his neck hum. And he knew it was time. To his side, a blue portal sparked into existence.

The younger Danny’ eyes widened. “Is that it?”

Danny nodded and stood up. “Yep. That’s my way home.” He turned to the portal, preparing to step through. “I guess this is goodbye.”

The younger Danny also stood, frowning. “Am I gonna see you again?”

Danny shook his head. “I don’t think so. Not like this.”

The other boy nodded, seeing to understand what he meant. That conundrum. Two different yet so similar lives. The same person and yet not.

The younger Danny stepped forward. He wrapped his arms around his counterpart. “Thank you for making sure I wasn’t alone last night.”

Danny hugged him back. “I...I couldn’t see you in pain if I could do something about it.” He squeezed. “Take care of yourself, Danny.”

The younger also squeezed. “You too, Danny.”

The pair stayed like that for a long moment before pulling away. With parting waves, Danny stepped through the portal.

[ladylynse]

Chapter 16 [FFN | AO3] of The Trouble with Ghosts: Lancer hadn’t realized how closely young Mr. Fenton’s school troubles–and the secrets he surely wasn’t telling his parents–were tied to ghosts until after that encounter with Phantom.

(beginning | previous)

Warnings: Torture and near drowning until the dialogue starts, more threats afterwards

-|-

Despite his distorted view, Danny saw the three figures enter the lab before Vlad did. Vlad was too busy watching him. Smiling. Waiting.

Danny’s heart thundered in his chest. He couldn’t kick or thrash. He couldn’t scream, at least not without burning up the last of his oxygen. He hoped Vlad would take his widened eyes as panic or pleading instead of surprise, but—

There must have been some sound that Danny didn’t hear. Vlad turned, flicking intangible as a blast from an ectogun shot through him and hit the door of Danny’s chamber, fizzling out into a shower of green sparks. It wasn’t enough to crack the door, unfortunately, but now he could hear yelling above the blood pounding in his ears, and he knew they must’ve seen him.

Black started to swirl in front of his eyes, and something within him tried to spark to life.

Danny pushed it down, trying to focus, but all he could see now through the encroaching black was glimpses of pink and green. Vlad wasn’t holding back, then. He wasn’t pretending.

Of course, he couldn’t, not with Danny right there in his lab. Considering he looked like Masters and not Plasmius, he’d have to play at being overshadowed to even try to get away with this. Not that it would work now that everyone knew the truth. They weren’t going to take Vlad’s word over Danny’s.

Danny’s chest ached.

Every heartbeat seemed like it was building up pressure, threatening to burst out of him—

That same something sparked again, white light filtering through the black, and he pushed it down.

His vision closed off completely, and he tried to listen, to follow the fight, only to start as something banged into the door of the chamber, sending a reverberation through the entire thing.

Liquid flooded into his mouth and filled his lungs, and Danny choked, spluttering and trying to move—

The spark came again, and he didn’t have the strength to stop it.

After the change had washed over him, his body didn’t protest the lack of oxygen. The fogginess lifted from his mind, and he could see with clear eyes.

Meaning he could see the snarling expression on Valerie’s face as she attacked Vlad, flanked by his mom. Not that attacking Vlad did much good, seeing as he simply stayed intangible. Valerie’s momentum from her punch sent her stumbling through him, and the rolling desk chair lying on its side in front of his chamber didn’t seem so out of place once Valerie grabbed a beaker from the table she’d hit and hurled it at Vlad’s head. Maddie danced out of the way—Valerie really wasn’t used to fighting with allies—and swept at Vlad’s feet with the Fenton Utility Weapon, but he still wasn’t tangible, and whatever setting she had it on wasn’t enough for shock him back to tangibility. Danny saw her changing the settings, spinning the dial on the side in between hits, but she hadn’t had success yet.

Most ghosts couldn’t stay intangible for very long.

It was incredibly draining.

Thinking back on it, Danny really should’ve realized that Vlad employed that tactic more than anyone else he’d ever fought. All those years of breaking into places, maybe. He wasn’t fighting back anymore, though Danny wasn’t necessarily sure that it was a good thing. It was Vlad. Having no scruples was kinda his thing, and—

Wait.

Where was Lancer?

It shouldn’t have been difficult to lose sight of a giant ball of green energy, but to be fair, Danny hadn’t expected Lancer to ever turn off the portable ghost shield. (Once Danny had realized that must be what Lancer was using, he really couldn’t see it being anything else.)

Of course, a ghost shield was only effective against ghosts.

Danny’s heart sank a little when he spotted Lancer a mere five feet from him, half-hidden behind an examination table but held in place by a second Vlad.

A duplicate in human form was still in human form. Truthfully, Danny wasn’t sure how that worked, but it was something he’d tested with Sam and Tucker once he’d gotten the hang of actually creating a duplicate. Vlad had had twenty years to test out his abilities, so he knew perfectly well that he’d only needed to drop his intangibility and invisibility at the last second to pass through the ghost shield.

For a moment, Danny didn’t know why Vlad wouldn’t just overshadow Lancer. A scalpel to the throat was a little much, even for him. Maddie and Valerie were too focused on the first Vlad to notice, and Danny couldn’t hear Mr. Lancer making any attempt to get their attention. It just didn’t seem like an effective tactic, so Danny couldn’t understand Vlad’s game. If it were just to keep Lancer from reaching him—and he had clearly been Lancer’s goal; Danny had no doubt Valerie and Maddie had agreed to something like that beforehand, letting Lancer do the rescuing while they did the distracting—there were easier ways to do that.

Holo-Maddie reappeared at that moment, causing the real one to freeze in place and stare as the hologram chirped out, “Sample processed, sweetums!”

Valerie was the first one to recover—unless you counted Vlad, who was already flying towards the computer console. The version of him who wasn’t holding Lancer captive, anyway. “What the heck is that supposed to mean?” Valerie shrieked, her words even clearer to him now that he was Phantom. She hadn’t taken her eyes off the hologram, but Maddie had the moment Vlad had begun to move. She was taking aim with her weapon, and—

Vlad screamed as the blast hit him in the back, throwing him forward into the console. His suit was smoking slightly at the edges, distinct despite Danny’s watery view. Maddie took another shot, this time hitting the computer in a flurry of sparks.

It was only once the Maddie hologram flickered that Danny realized that might have been his mother’s intention all along. Had Vlad let himself be hit? Had he been trying to protect the computer?

Valerie had her ectogun raised again, too. Except— It wasn’t the one she’d held earlier, the one Maddie must’ve given her. It was definitely Dalv tech, the same one he’d faced down only yesterday. She wasn’t in her suit—at least she knew enough not to trust that—but he knew that look on her face. She was a split second away from pulling the trigger, and Danny was sure that it was only Vlad’s voice from behind her when she could clearly see him in front of her that had her freeze before she could take her shot.

“I’d hold your fire,” the scalpel-wielding Vlad said, effectively drawing the attention of the others.

Holo-Maddie reappeared by the first Vlad at the computer console, but neither Valerie nor Maddie gave any indication that they’d noticed. Valerie took two steps towards Mr. Lancer and the Vlad who was holding him captive, still aiming her gun at them, but Maddie stopped her. She started trying to bargain, but Danny could recognize the distraction for what it was, and he looked back to see if he could figure out what Vlad was doing at the computer.

The angle wasn’t great; Danny couldn’t see the screen, let alone make out what Vlad was typing. Still, he could see Vlad pocket something—a flash drive, maybe?—before he keyed something into the computer. Holo-Maddie disappeared, and one of the large buttons on the console started flashing red.

Vlad changed into Plasmius, catching Valerie’s attention once more, but she only got off one shot before he flew through the wall.

It had missed him by less than half an inch, the tiny little dart embedded in the wall instead.

The remaining Vlad smiled before dropping the scalpel and vanishing himself.

Danny couldn’t make out Lancer’s gasping words, but he waved off Maddie and Valerie and pointed towards Danny. At a word from Maddie, Valerie nodded and moved towards him anyway, but Danny couldn’t see if Lancer had downplayed his injuries because Maddie was all he could see as she came over to examine the chamber.

“Hold on, Danny,” she said. “I’ll get you out of there.”

Either Vlad’s work was incredibly intuitive or he’d based it off an old invention with which Maddie was familiar, because the water was draining in less than thirty seconds. Danny might not strictly need to breathe as much in ghost mode (or at all? He always got really uncomfortable whenever they tried to test it, so he wasn’t wholly sure if it had a time limit), but he still sucked in huge lungfuls of air the moment he could.

“Thanks,” he whispered, just before the door’s seal released with a pop.

“Don’t thank us yet,” Maddie murmured as she pulled the door open and peered at the contraption sticking out of his abdomen. “Do you know what this is?”

“Vlad was trying to get…got…a mid-morph sample. Like, a DNA sample or something from the moment I changed.” Danny glanced down at it. “You can probably just pull it out without killing me.” Vlad didn’t know if the sample was all he needed, after all. At least, Danny hoped he didn’t. That doubt would keep Vlad from pulling anything worse right now.

“Let’s get you out of this first. Then I’ll take a better look at that.”

A detached part of Danny knew most mothers didn’t carry around lockpicks, let alone know how to use them. It wasn’t one of the things he could ever remember Jazz rolling her eyes over—being able to chase ghosts past the first locked door or gate or whatever was rather essential to a successful ghosthunter, and his parents didn’t exactly have a life of crime on the side like Vlad—but it was something he’d gotten used to long before his parents had ever opened the portal. He could still remember the look on Mrs. Foley’s face the first time he’d asked her where she kept hers if she didn’t have any pockets in her clothes. He’d been five or six, maybe, and she’d been too stunned by the seemingly random question to speak.

Tucker had been too busy laughing to realize Danny hadn’t been joking like he’d assumed.

Still, it didn’t take very long for Maddie to free his wrists, and by the time she dropped down to work on the lock at his feet, Lancer was hovering anxiously in the background and Valerie had gone to glower at the computer console.

“Thanks for coming,” Danny said, trying not to focus on the thin line of red where Vlad had scored Lancer’s skin. He really hadn’t thought Vlad would kill anyone—it was more his style to utterly discredit them—and seeing that this might not have been an empty threat on Vlad’s part made Danny’s stomach turn. He was fine with the danger being focused on himself, but everyone else, especially someone like Mr. Lancer….

“The others are headed over,” Valerie said without turning around, and Lancer closed his mouth without speaking. “Good thing, too. I think Tucker’ll need to figure out whatever Mr. Masters did, because I definitely can’t.”

“Come on, sweetie,” Maddie said as she eased him free, keeping his torso straight even as she turned him, pivoting him out of the chamber without pulling free whatever was stuck inside him. “Just hold on a few more seconds while I look at this.”

Danny nodded and didn’t breathe, letting her work.

He felt like he’d lost. Mr. Lancer, Valerie, his parents— They all knew and accepted him, and now they all knew the truth about Vlad, too. That should have been a victory. Maybe it still was, of a sort, but if Danny had won that battle, Vlad had won the other one. He’d gotten the mid-morph sample. His play with Valerie had worked. He’d…he’d be able to create stable clones….

Would he even be satisfied with a clone? He might create the perfect half-ghost son that looked exactly like Danny, might be able to brainwash him or program him or whatever he’d done to Danielle to make the clone as like Danny as possible, but a clone would never be as good as the original, however perfect a replica it was. How far would Vlad get before he realized this wouldn’t make him happy, either? How long would it be until he came back? Tried to capture Danny again, tried to split his parents up and win over Maddie? If he did manage to create perfect clones, he could use them to his advantage—

“He won’t get away with this,” Maddie was saying. “He won’t simply lose his position on the city council; his estate—his entire empire—will come under scrutiny. I know he kept residences here and in Wisconsin, and there are all those hunting cabins, too. He won’t be easy to track down, but we’ll find him, even if he tries to hide in the Ghost Zone. In the meantime, we’ll make sure he can never come back and never hurt you like this again. It’s going to be okay, sweetie. He can’t fool us now that we know the truth, and he won’t be able to keep his political power, either.”

“We should perhaps focus on the most immediate problem—” Lancer started.

“I’ve almost got it,” Maddie said without looking up from her tinkering, but from the look on Lancer’s face, that wasn’t what he’d meant.

“Uh, guys?” There was a note of panic in Valerie’s voice that hadn’t been there before. “I think Vlad sealed us in.” Danny looked over at her, and she had her phone to her ear. “Jack’s outside in the office, and Jazz is headed back to school to pick up Sam and Tucker, but apparently this place is blast proof.”

“There should be a control panel on the wall where we came through,” Maddie said. “Get it open and I’ll come when I’m finished here.”

“I can bandage him up,” Lancer said with a touch on her shoulder. “First aid is within my skill set.”

Danny had felt the poking and prodding and pulling around his abdomen, of course, but he hadn’t realized his mother had tugged out the device—long and sharp with what might be electrodes hanging off of it for all Danny knew—until he saw it in her hand. She set it on the bench beside her and pulled his own hands to press against the wound before removing her own and straightening up. She pulled out a sample bag from one of her many pockets and put the device inside before tucking it away. As she stripped off her green-stained gloves and pulled another pair from a different pockt, she said, “Thank you.” Pointing with her free hand towards the wall with the portal, she added, “I saw the first aid kit over there.”

As she walked over to join Valerie at the far wall, Lancer dropped to a crouch to examine the wound for himself, gently nudging Danny’s hands out of the way.

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” Danny said after Lancer sucked in a sharp breath.

“I think I’ll be the judge of that, Mr. Fenton.”

“You don’t know what I’ve been through.”

Lancer closed his eyes briefly before standing. “No, I daresay I still don’t, but I do know it is not something I would wish on someone as young as you. Come along; I’ll see what I can do.”

“If it’s bad enough that you need to stitch me up, you don’t have to be that good at it for it to be good enough. Sam didn’t know what she was doing when she started, and all Jazz and I knew about sewing when we began doing this was whatever Dad had shown us, and that never involved stitching up people.”

“You are not making the situation sound any better, I’m afraid.”

“It’s just….” Danny bit his lip but let Lancer guide him closer to the portal and didn’t protest when the teacher bent to pick him up and sit him down on an examination table. Well. Dissection table, going by the bindings. He decided not to think about that, something that wasn’t hard to do when his wound was throbbing after the jostling, and instead changed back to Fenton before Mr. Lancer asked. The change, at least, came as easily as it always had. “It’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be once it started.”

“Should that not be cause for celebration?”

Danny wasn’t sure if Lancer was trying (and failing) to be facetious, so he shrugged and then hissed as the movement stung, stabbing into him with more ferocity than he’d expected from such a slight movement. “I don’t think it’ll be as easy as Mom thinks it is.”

Lancer was quiet for a moment, busying himself by grabbing the first aid kit from the wall, setting it down beside Danny, and looking through the contents to find what he wanted. Finally, “Things rarely are as simple as they should be, but you needn’t take it all on by yourself any longer—and, rest assured, I am not referring to your friends. I strongly suggest the matter be left primarily to your parents, with my assistance wherever I am able to help. If there are any legal proceedings—”

“Are you serious? We can’t take Vlad down using the proper channels. If he can’t buy people off, he’ll just overshadow them or get some other ghosts to do it for him.”

“Mr. Fen—”

“This isn’t something you can just fix. It’s not that easy.”

“I understand, but—”

“No, you don’t. You can’t or you wouldn’t be standing there talking about legal proceedings.” Danny started to sigh and then coughed as the pain spiked again. His healing was still too slow. How long was this thing supposed to last? He couldn’t remember Vlad helpfully monologuing about that little detail. Too bad Technus wasn’t likely to know.

“I’m sorry.”

Danny blinked and looked up at Mr. Lancer, who was still focused on disinfecting Danny’s wound. Danny hissed through his teeth as a new sort of stinging took hold, but Lancer didn’t pay that any mind.

“I should have done something before,” Lancer continued as he reached for some butterfly stitches, something that Danny knew from experience would hold well enough until he could get stitched up properly. They were better than nothing, anyway. Lancer held the wound closed as he put them in place, and Danny did his best not to wince. “I knew something had changed in your life, and it took me entirely too long to find out what it was. I allowed myself to be distracted, to neglect you in favour of the school—”

“What?”

Lancer had pulled out the gauze now. No big surprise there. When in doubt, cover it and deal with it later. It would not be the first time Danny had pulled that trick. With his usual healing rate, he typically only needed stitches and splints and stuff to make sure he didn’t heal improperly; he’d never had to worry about infection.

“Let’s just say seeing Mr. Baxter appropriately punished for his actions has been an ongoing fight, one I have not dedicated myself to as much as I should have, as you are not his only target.”

Oh.

Being Dash’s favourite punching bag wasn’t even on Danny’s radar right now.

“That’s okay. I’m used to it. But you—”

“You being used to it, as you say, is part of the problem—and, quite frankly, yet more evidence of my failing. Thankfully, that is a fight I am better suited for than this one has been.” The hand that had been tracking towards to the first aid kit—probably for medical tape to hold the gauze in place—jerked towards Lancer’s neck instead, no doubt pulled by the reminder of what had happened and the realization of what could have been, but it resumed course before it could make contact. “Just because you are used to something does not mean it does not need to be addressed.”

“I mean, I guess, but priorities, y’know? Vlad’s definitely worse than Dash.”

“And your parents will focus on that problem with the help I can give them, as I’ve said.”

“But it’s Vlad. It’s not just…. I mean, yeah, he’s one person, but he’s not one problem. He can create a whole bunch more problems really easily, especially now that he has a mid-morph sample from me. That’s what he needed to stabilize his clones. He can create a perfect clone of me now, at least once he gets a lab set up or overshadows someone in charge of one that does have the right stuff, and—”

“I am not saying that you are incapable of handling the problem—or problems—Vlad poses,” Lancer said delicately as he finished taping the gauze into place, “but you need to understand that you aren’t alone in this anymore.”

“Sam and—”

“Did I not tell you that your friends and your sister should not be the only ones facing the danger alongside you? You know that isn’t what I mean.”

Danny frowned. “You’re still seriously underestimating Vlad, even though he threatened you and you’re standing in his secret lab.”

“Which is one reason why I am not trying to say you should sit out all of this while the adults take care of the situation,” Lancer said, not looking the least bit surprised when Danny bristled. “You have more knowledge and experience than we do—even, I daresay, than your parents do. You may have fewer years of ghost hunting under your belt, but your perspective and the intensity of your, ah, training, for lack of a better word—”

“Experience is the best teacher.”

Lancer raised an eyebrow at Danny’s glib interruption but otherwise didn’t comment on it. “You should not be sidelined, but neither should you continue to be the one leading the charge and taking the heaviest fire. One of the reasons your parents fight ghosts is to protect you and your sister, is it not? Is throwing yourself into the most danger possible not against everything they are fighting for?”

Danny shifted and tugged his shirt down to cover up Lancer’s patch job as the teacher packed away the supplies. At least that meant his previous wounds must not look too bad; otherwise, Lancer would’ve insisted on redressing them. Of course, the one in his side was near enough to the one in his abdomen that Lancer could’ve done it at the same time. Danny had been paying more attention to what he’d held in his hands than where he was putting them, mostly because thinking about what Lancer was doing would just make it hurt more.

Still.

If Lancer hadn’t continued talking, that meant he was waiting for an answer. Danny took a careful breath, and it didn’t hurt this time. “Sometimes it’s necessary.”

“It is not necessary right now, and I am quite sure your parents will do everything in their power to ensure it remains unnecessary for you, your sister, or your friends to do that.” He glanced over his shoulder and added dryly, “And I am very much including Miss Gray in that assessment.”

Danny glanced towards Valerie. She was still hovering by the door, watching Maddie work on the panel. “Val’s a good fighter.”

“I never said she wasn’t. I’m trying to say that none of you should fight, but as you have the most knowledge of the situation, it is prudent that you help the adults—”

“But don’t you get it? Yeah, we’re kids, and it sucks that we have to risk so much to do this—but we aren’t the only ones in situations like this. Well, not like this, dealing with ghosts, but with high stakes. And it’s great that you care and want to take care of us, but we don’t need taking care of. Maybe you think it’s a shame we had to grow up fast or whatever to deal with this, but we can’t just pretend what we’ve gone through never happened. We’ve already had to learn to fight, so we did, and we’re good at it. It doesn’t make sense for you to just up and stop us and make us into, I dunno, consultants or something instead of fighters.”

Lancer blinked.

“We always knew there was risk. We accepted that, just like Mom and Dad did. Just like you did. We might not be legal adults but that doesn’t mean we don’t know what we were getting into with this. This whole thing with Vlad is messed up. We know. We know better than you do. He has what he wants, something he’s been trying forever to get, which is scary because it means I don’t know what he’s going to do next. And neither do you.”

Danny stared at his hands, not wanting to look Lancer in the eye after he’d let his tongue run away with him. “It’s just…. I can make a better guess of what this means than you or Mom and Dad can. And if you guys try to block us at every turn and insist it’s too dangerous to be directly involved ourselves just because we’re kids, we’re never going to stop him, and things will get worse.”

He pushed himself off the table, landing on his feet and wincing but holding in a whimper of pain. He’d get through this. He had to. Vlad’s drug had to work its way through his system and wear off soon, and then he’d be back to normal in no time. “I’ve picked up some things from Tucker, so I’m going to check out the computer. You can go through Vlad’s files or something and see if you can find the formula for whatever Val shot me with. Mom can probably make an antidote once she has that.”

Lancer made no move to follow as Danny strode off, and when he called Danny’s name, Danny pretended not to hear.

(see more fics | next)

[danny-phantom-writings]

Let’s Try Something Different This Time - Pt 13 - Daydream

Summary: Dan Phantom escapes from that damned thermos. He finds himself in a new timeline, untouched by his carnage and ready to be destroyed. Though ... perhaps he'll find more entertainment doing something else this time.

Or: I write a Dan Phantom fic using the Dannymay prompts for each chapter, just to see if I can. Here we go!

Pt. 1 Pt. 2  Pt. 3  Pt. 4  Pt. 5  Pt. 6  Pt. 7  Pt. 8  Pt. 9  Pt. 10  Pt. 11  Pt. 12  

Pt. 13

Read it on AO3 here!

-

It has been quite some time since Dan had come here, he realized. He wondered how long exactly. A couple months? Half a year? He knew fall and winter had already come and passed, so it has definitely been a long time. He decided he would ask Nita the next time he saw her. 

She wasn’t at home today. She said she had work on Friday’s, Saturday’s, and Sunday’s, though he didn’t know what they work was. He hadn’t exactly asked either. That was another question he could ask her later, maybe. If he remembered. Until then, he had other business to attend to. He had to patrol his territory. He supposed it was technically called a haunt. At least that’s what Nita had said before and it made enough sense that he was willing to go with it. 

It was going well so far. There were a few weak ghosts that had come through the natural portals, but most sensed him before he could reach them and left. There was one stubborn enough to stay. He was pretty young and cocky, but he wasn’t nearly powerful or experienced enough to actually be a problem. Still, it was nice to get some of his energy out fighting someone. He probably dragged it out longer than he should have. 

It wasn’t until night was approaching that he felt something … off about his woods. Something was there, something that was most definitely not supposed to be there, but he couldn’t pinpoint what or where it was. 

He flew over the trees several times this way and that, but every time he felt he was getting close, something shifted or it was never close at all. It only served to make him irritated, then frustrated, then downright angry. 

It was probably best if he stepped away from this, so to speak, despite how much his core was yelling at him to do something, intruder, get rid of it, DO SOMETHING! There u;timately was nothing he could do. It was like the woods themselves were the intruder, even though he knew that was ridiculous. Whatever it was would have to show itself eventually, so for tonight at least he can allow himself to let it go. For now.

He went to the garden instead, the only place where that feeling didn’t bother him. He didn’t really consider the place his, it was Nita’s, so it didn’t matter as much if someone was there. It did still bother him some, but at least his instincts weren’t yelling at him as much.

He landed on the garden path, boots scuffing against the smooth stone. Nita was home and it looked like she had those friends of hers over. He could see them through the window, sitting around in the living room talking and laughing with each other. He turned invisible. He didn’t mind if Nita saw him, he would never scare her properly anyways, but he didn’t need them seeing him, too.

He wondered what he should do about this. 

His mind drifted off with ideas. Nita probably would have called it daydreaming, but that sounded ridiculous. Dan did not daydream. He simply thought up situations to determine what to do. Definitely not daydreaming.

He could sneak in through that hole he found so long ago, finally put his plan into motion, even if it wasn’t against the same person. He imagined their reactions, thinking their so safe inside their little ghost-proof bubble. They would be terrified! He could already hear their screams. Yes, that would be an excellent idea. 

He smirked, flying over to the shield and searching for the gap he knew was there. 

But he couldn’t find it. 

He frowned, running his hands through the area again but there was still nothing. 

Well shit. Did it move? No, he looked over the whole shield but it simply wasn’t even there anymore. How did that work? He knew it was there. He had checked the spot often to make sure it had still been there, but now it was gone?

He growled in frustration, louder than he probably should have but he thought it was safe to assume they didn’t hear him from inside the house.

Until he noticed the window was open, the humans inside frozen and staring out of it. 

This was fine, he decided. He could still salvage this. He hovered over to the open window, listening to the hushed voices.

“... animal, like last time?”

“No, that wasn’t some stupid animal. Ya know animals that sound like that? In Virginia? The worse we get is, like, bats.”

“You guys are really thinking way too hard about this.” Nita said with a smirk, rubbing at her face. 

“Oh, right, ‘cause ghosts make more sense.” The tall woman said with a scoff. The man with the dreads sighed.

“Come on, Micki, we’ve been over this.”

She rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, you’ve told me all about your run-ins with ghostly specters or whatever. Totally not made up for attention or anything.”

The man looked offended but before he could say anything, the other woman interrupted. 

“Girl, that was really uncalled for. Saying Scott is lying would mean that Nita was also lying. And Jared. And Mike. You really think they’re all lying?”

“I’m sure they believe they saw something, that doesn’t mean anything was actually there.”

They continued their argument on the existence of ghosts. It seemed like the tall woman was the only one who believed they didn’t exist, or those who agreed with her just didn’t speak up. Nita just looked amused with their argument, sitting back in her chair with her massive cat in her lap, sipping on a bottle of something. Eventually, she stood up, the cat jumping down. Everyone went silent, their eyes on her.

“Alright guys, I think that’s enough. I can prove that ghosts exist pretty damn easily, if you’ll just give me a second.”

She walked across the living room towards the back door, opening it as she went outside. At first, the others didn’t move, a few giving the tall woman meaningful glances before following her. They didn’t go outside, but they did hover around the back door.

He was curious enough to see where this was going, so he flew around to the roof of the porch, looking down to where Nita stood. 

“Hey, fucker, I know you’re there.” Nita shouted, not really loud enough to carry but enough to catch someone’s attention if they were nearby. He assumed that someone was supposed to be him “My friends don’t think you exist, ya know, like assholes. If you want, can you prove them wrong for me? I’m tired of this stupid argument.” She turned back to glare at the tall woman who crossed her arms.

“Talking to the air? You really think that proves anything?”

He growled again, making the whole group jump. The smaller woman even gave a squeak of fright, several of them backing away from the door. The tall woman also looked scared, face going pale.

“Nita, I think we need to go inside.”

Nita crossed her arms, jutting out her hip in a defiant stance.

“There’s no animal, dumbass, that’s what I’m trying to prove. The idiot probably just realized I fixed my protective circle and got pissed.”

Ah, so there was a circle? He supposed that made sense, but it was a bit amusing that it took her so long to find the gap. 

“Seriously, ghosts don’t exist, you’re just gonna get yourself killed.” Nita raised a brow, but didn’t move any closer to the door. In fact. She turned her back to her friends and went down the steps, turning back to them when she was a ways into the garden. She raised her arms before dropping them back to her sides. 

“I don’t see any animals out here.”

“Nita, seriously!” The woman sounded panicked now and that seemed to actually bother Nita. She sighed, looking about ready to give in and go back inside for her friend's sake. He decided he should probably step in.

“There are no animals.”

His voice rang out over the garden without the need for shouting. He made sure to put a bit of an extra echo to his voice, made it deep and otherworldly, filled with darkness. More of her friends stepped away from the door, all looking very pale. He could taste their fear in the air, so terribly delicious. They were truly, perfectly afraid. He loved it.

He flew behind Nita, allowing nothing but his eyes to show, glowing a blood red in the dark. The small woman yelled, followed by the sounds of several gasps and yelps of frights. The tall woman looked about ready to faint, but she didn’t step away like the others. She took a ahlf a step forward, reaching out to Nita. 

She just turned around, looking up to meet his eyes and smirking.

“There you are. Being a bit dramatic, don’t you think?”

He let his invisibility drip away, taking in the gasps of fright that followed. The area was suddenly lit by his glow, his flaming hair sending shadows flickering around their feet. The fear was thick in the air, but Nita just smiled at him.

“Perhaps a bit,” he admitted with a smirk, his long fangs glinting in the dark. “But I couldn’t resist. Your dear friends are just so easy to scare, and their fear is irresistible. I’ll do my best to refrain next time.”

Nita rolled her eyes at him, shaking her head with a fond smile on her lips. 

“Come on, edgelord, I’ll introduce you to my friends.” She motioned for him to follow, going back to the porch. He watched her go for a moment, head tilted to the side as he debated with himself. He decided to follow, stopping just outside the bubble at the bottom of the porch steps. The group peered at him from behind the doorway, their fear dissipating now that Nita proved the threat to be nonexistent. 

“Starting with my girl here, since she’s up front. This is Mikaela, we call her Micki. She’s being a bit of an ass about the whole ghost existing thing, but she’s really a good friend, super loyal, always there when I need her.”

Said woman was staring at Dan, face very pale and eyes wide. She gave a little wave, only for a moment. The woman was tall, but he was still easily a head taller than her. 

“Guys, come here and say hi, I can’t introduce you when you're all hiding.”

The man with the dreads didn’t even hesitate, pushing past the group to stand beside Micki.

“Hey, I’m Scott. You look fucking badass.”

Dan laughed at that. It was just too unexpected. 

“Thanks I guess.”

The man with the red hair came out next, said his name was Micheal, Mike for short. Then the well dressed man with long hair, his name was Herod, not to be confused with Jared, the bland white guy. The woman in plaid was Anne and the small woman with dark hair was Tiffany. They all said hi and calmed down, soon enough laughing again and mocking each other fondly. 

“See, I fucking told you! I’m not an idiot, you know.”

“I never said you were!”

“You implied it!”

“... maybe.”

That got everyone laughing. They were all turning to go back inside. 

He should probably go.

“Hey, you want to hang out with us?” Nita’s question stopped him. He looked to her with a frown, confused.

“Yeah, that’d be cool! We could play mafia or something.” Scott agreed.

“Dude, we should totally play Cards Against Humanity!” Anne offered. “You have a deck don’t you?”

Nita nodded.

“Come on then, let’s play!” Tiffany said with a smile, headed inside herself. The rest of the group filed in after her, but Nita stayed behind, still waiting for his answer.

He … wasn’t sure. It didn’t seem right to act so friendly with this group of humans. Not after … Well, everything. He had probably killed these people in his timeline. He had the blood of millions on his hands, whether directly or not. He didn’t deserve to be anywhere near them. Hell, he didn’t deserve to be anywhere near Nita! No, it was probably a terrible idea to agree. Besides, he was never that social of a person. He’d probably hate it. 

But Nita was still smiling at him, still waiting, and his core thrummed with a want he had never felt before, or maybe he just never allowed himself to feel it. Despite everything, he wanted to say yes, to spend just a minute in friendly company, even if they didn’t really know who he was. 

“Fine, I’ll stay for a while.” He said, keeping his voice even, never showing the range of emotions he was fighting.

Nita’s smile widened and she offered him her hand. He glanced at it, then at her eyes, before accepting it, his taloned hand engulfing hers, so out of place. 

She pulled him through the barrier and welcomed him into her home. Even in his daydreams he couldn’t imagine this happening. 

He smiled.

[pitch-pearl-void]

Hi! I love your work! Do you take requests? If so, would you mind doing something like maybe Skulker is looking for Phantom so in the middle of the day he comes to find Fenton to use him as bait while he's in the middle of class? And the class' reaction, because holy crap Fenton knows a ghost, and Phantom coming to save him? If not, that's totally fine, too!

I love the idea! I may have gotten a little carried away...whoops ^-^’ I focused more on Fenton and his classmates than on the romance, but I hope you’ll like it!

A paper football smacked directly into Fenton’s neck. Fenton cringed and gritted his teeth. In the desk behind him, he heard Dash snicker and the dull smack of two hands connecting as he high-fived Kwan. Mr. Lancer continued droning on about Shakespeare’s career, too passionate to notice Dash’s behavior—assuming he would care. He would probably just see it as another form of punishment for Fenton’s actions.

Not punishment for taking too many bathroom breaks or arriving late to class, though. No, Fenton’s days as a misbehaved student were supposed to be over, brought to an end by his and Phantom’s separation. He no longer needed to escape class to fight ghosts. He no longer needed to think about ghosts at all.

In theory…

Avoiding ghosts might have worked if Fenton could just stop thinking about his other half. 

For weeks after they had separated, they had barely spoken, but then Fenton had to go and open his big mouth, invite Phantom to play a round on his video game, driven by some instinct or by some longing he couldn’t put a name to. Phantom was just…he was his missing half. Being around him felt right. It wasn’t that crazy that Fenton had missed him, right? That they had stayed up nearly all night talking, playing, and joking? That Phantom visited almost every night, that they were rebuilding something new between them?

There was just so much to talk about, so many things to share, so many things to experience together in ways they never had as one. A month had passed with the two of them growing closer, and Fenton was losing his mind, he was sure of it.

What else but madness would have made him meet Phantom’s kiss with one of his own?

He had gotten caught texting Phantom. There was just so much they needed to figure out about what they were feeling… Lancer had confiscated his phone and moved Fenton to the front of the class where Lancer could “keep an eye on him.”

A fourth football landed without Lancer’s eye seeing a thing.

Fenton groaned and dropped his forehead onto the desk.

“Head up, Mr. Fenton,” Mr. Lancer ordered without looking.

Amazing, Fenton thought irritably as he lifted his head. He knows and sees everything except—

An invisible hand seized Fenton’s wrist, cold metal plates painfully squeezing his arm. He drew in a sharp breath. Before he could call out a warning, the ghost flew above his desk, lifting Fenton by his arm until they were at eye-level several feet from the ground.

Skulker, fully visible now, grinned viciously at Fenton’s stunned face.

“Crime and Punishment!” Mr. Lancer yelped.

The other students jumped from their seats, screaming. They ran for the door, but Skulker activated something by flicking the fingers of his free hand, and green electric bars sprang up in front of the door and the windows. The students cried out in fear and backed away from the bars. Fenton grabbed the arm holding his wrist and tried to pull himself up or at least relieve the strain on his shoulder and wrist. He grunted, kicked his feet, but he couldn’t manage a chin-up one-handed. He could barely do them with two.

“A bit overkill,” Skulker mused aloud, staring at Fenton’s classmates, “I have my bait, I don’t need hostages, but perhaps one of you lot can perform a service for me.”

“Skulker,” Fenton growled under his breath, trying to slip his voice underneath the fearful screams and yelling so he would only be heard by Skulker, “what the heck are you doing? You know I’m not half-ghost anymore, let me go.”

Skulker laughed, a cruel, creepy sound due to the robotic speakers and the natural echo in his voice. Fenton’s classmates shrank back from him. “You now serve a new purpose for me, whelp.” He swung Fenton by his wrist, Fenton’s legs swinging freely, and then, before Fenton could squeak a protest, he tossed him.

Fenton cried out and tried uselessly to activate powers that were no longer there. It took five seconds. Five seconds of falling before he landed on the cement floor. 

Air burst from his lungs. Pain and shock exploded from his back. He tried gasping in a breath, but his lungs didn’t seem to be working. He choked before managing a ragged inhale.

Skulker’s boot pressed down on his chest before he could roll over and curl into a ball. Fenton groaned, his back screaming, but he wrapped his fingers around the boot and tried to shove it off. He couldn’t. Without ghost powers, he was too weak. He was too disoriented. Had he hit his head? He thought his back took the full brunt of his fall, but his head might have bounced back.

Add super healing to the list of powers I wish I had right now, he thought woozily.

He had never hurt so much during a ghost fight, not even when he had been thrown through buildings. He had made craters in pavement and climbed out of the pit with only a sore shoulder. If this was the sort of dangers full humans faced during every ghost attack…

No wonder they always ran away.

Except Sam and Tucker… Fenton pried his eyes open and turned his head toward his classmates, desperately searching for the friends he knew wouldn’t be there. They shared a math class with Valerie during final period. Skulker must have waited until Fenton was isolated from any other ghost hunter who could help. But why?

“Where is your communications device?” Skulker asked him.

Fenton turned his head and blinked stupidly up at him. “What?”

“Your…” Skulker snapped his fingers together as he searched for the word he needed, “rectangular device. Phone. Phone! Yes, that was it. Where is your phone, whelp?”

Fenton tipped his head back and looked toward Lancer’s desk. It was probably there somewhere, but…he could see Mr. Lancer and a few of his classmates huddling behind the desk. He lowered his chin and looked incredulously up at Skulker again. “That’s why you’re attacking me? My phone? What the hell do you need my phone for?”

“Dude,” one of the jocks, Brad, hissed. “What the fuck are you doing, Fenton? Shut up and do what he says!”

Skulker snorted—or mimicked one, anyway. “Better do as the other whelps advise, child. You’re a great deal more delicate without your powers.”

Fenton hissed in a breath, but his classmates would hopefully miss the implication—if he spoke fast enough and gave them something else to think about. “Tell me what you want my phone for, first.”

Brad groaned.

“He’s a dead man,” Kwan whispered.

“To contact your ghost half, why else?” Skulker said disdainfully.

Fenton wanted to scream. “I don’t have one!” he said, the words almost tripping over each other as they rushed from his mouth.

“What?” Skulker’s menacing tone softened into something almost civil. “A phone? You don’t have a phone? Perhaps I can make one for you. I understand these devices are important to human development. And it would serve my purposes to be able to reach one ghost child through the other.”

“Stop—Damn it, Skulker! I don’t have a ghost half!” Fenton tipped his chin up and raised his voice. “I am one hundred percent human!”

“Oh yes, now,” Skulker grumbled bitterly. “You two have cheated me of a unique specimen.”

“Wow, sorry,” Fenton deadpanned.

“What the fuck are they talking about?” Dash demanded. He tried to whisper it, but his high-pitched voice easily carried his words to Fenton and Skulker. “What the hell is a ghost half? Why is that robot ghost after Fenton?”

Fenton glared pointedly up at Skulker, trying to communicate a silent “look what you did” reprimand, but Skulker only moved his head in a way that made Fenton think the tiny ghost inside it was rolling his eyes. A blade shot out of the armor’s wrist. Skulker touched the flat side to Fenton’s cheek, and Fenton drew in a breath, the cold touch of the blade spreading throughout his body.

“Your phone, whelp,” Skulker said, once again sounding menacing. A few of Danny’s classmates wailed in terror.

Fenton snapped, “I don’t have it!”

Skulker twisted the blade, the edge pressing into Fenton’s cheek. “Last chance, whelp.”

“Wait!” Lancer stood from behind his desk. Paulina and a couple other students stood with him, looking petrified. “Stop, stop!” He lifted Fenton’s phone above his head. “I have it! You can have it if you release him.”

“No, I don’t think I will.” Skulker blade moved away from Fenton’s cheek, however, allowing Fenton to breathe a little easier. “Awaken it for me.” Skulker’s false lips spread into a wicked grin. “We shall be making a little phone call…”

Fenton narrowed his eyes.

“Uhh…” Lancer began, uncertainly. “It’s, uh, it’s asking for some sort of password?”

“His password is numerical!” Mikey called from within the crowd of students clustered around the door. “A pin! Seven-eight-nine-zero.”

“Hey!” Fenton cried. “How do you know that?”

“You have other things to worry about, Fenton!” Kwan reminded him pointedly.

Lancer typed in the pin number and then stared down at the phone like he was facing down a complex puzzle. “How, uh, do I make a phone call on this thing?”

“Oh here!” Paulina snatched the phone from Lancer’s hands. “You just press the little phone icon, see?” She glanced up at Skulker and seemed to shrink in on herself, her confidence faltering. Fenton couldn’t really blame her. He remembered being terrified of Skulker the first few times he had met him too. “Um, what’s the phone number?”

“Child?” Skulker nudged Fenton’s cheek with the flat of his blade again.

Fenton kept his head turned toward Paulina and glared at Skulker from the corner of his eyes. “What?”

“The phone number, human child.”

Fenton snorted. “You haven’t said what you want to call him for yet.”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“Spell it out for me.”

“In my efforts to study my prey’s habits, I have noticed the two of you getting…” Skulker tilted his head, “closer, shall we say? You have been spending a great deal of time together, lately. I don’t know how far things have gotten, but the signs of a ghost in love are fairly obvious. That is a weakness I can use. You are a weakness. Once he knows I have you, my prey will come to me.”

“You should change your name to Stalker,” Fenton grumbled, blushing.

The blush worsened as his classmates made little “ohhh” sounds of dawning understanding.

“Fenton has a ghost boyfriend,” Mikey said, his laugh too strained to be natural. “That must be what they mean by ghost half!!”

“Idiot,” Kwan groaned. “If this ghost doesn’t kill him, his parents are going to.”

Dash cupped his hands over his mouth and shouted, “Hey, Fenton, maybe you should dump your kinky ghost boyfriend before you get the rest of us killed over it!”

“Oh, fuck you!” Fenton shouted back, turning into the blade in order to glare at his classmates. “We’re not dating! We just kind of—He just…it’s complicated!"

Skulker snapped, “Whelp!” and turned Fenton’s head with the blade until Fenton’s glare had resettled on the ghost. “His phone number. Now!”

“No!” Fenton snapped back. “Forget it! I’m not going to let you use me as bait so you can—”

He cut off with a shriek of pain as the point of Skulker’s blade sliced across his cheek. Hot blood gushed from the wound and spilled toward his ear. He writhed under Skulkers boot and reached up to cover the wound, but Skulker’s blade slapped his hands away. Fenton’s classmates were screaming again, the tentative calm Fenton’s behavior had inspired shattered by the sight of so much blood. Tears streamed from Fenton’s eyes. Skulker slapped his hands away again before he could touch his face.

“You!” the hunter pointed at Paulina who quailed and shrank into Lancer. He protectively wrapped his arms around her. “Those devices can capture photos, can they not? Take a picture of this and send it to my prey as well.”

Paulina, trembling, shrieked, “I don’t know the number!”

Skulker looked down pointedly at Fenton. “Shall I give you a matching gash on your other cheek or will you cooperate for once, whelp?”

Fenton glared up at him and gritted his teeth against the pain.

“Look through his contacts!” Mikey shouted.

“Stop—” Fenton gasped in pain as speaking stretched the wound in his cheek. “—Stop helping him!”

“We’re not helping him we’re helping you, you suicidal maniac!” Dash shouted back.

Paulina’s hands shook as she maneuvered through Fenton’s phone. “What would the contact be? What—what do—h-how will I know which one is…?”

“He was texting someone during class,” Lancer said quickly. “That may be your best bet.”

“Mr. Lancer!” Fenton protested.

“Alright!” Paulina nearly sobbed. “Alright, I got it!” She pressed the phone to her ear, and Fenton squirmed under Skulker’s boot.

“Paulina, don’t!” he pleaded. “He’s just going to spring Skulker’s trap!”

“Hello?” Paulina gasped into Fenton’s phone, apparently ignoring Fenton. “Are you Danny’s ghost boyfriend, er ghost half? Yes, my name is Paulina, you have to come quick, there’s a ghost here!” Fresh tears escaped her eyes. “I don’t know his name!”

Skulker grinned. “He’ll know me once you take our picture.” He nudged Fenton’s chin with his blade, forcing his head to turn toward Paulina so his right cheek rested on the floor and the wound on his left cheek was exposed to the air. “Behave, child. Let him see the injury.”

“Uh, hold on,” Paulina told Phantom, “he wants me to take a picture…I don’t know! I’m just doing what I’m told!”

Fenton glared at Skulker from the corner of his eyes as best he could. “You’re a real piece of work, you know that?”

“I know.” Skulker grinned viciously down at him. “It’s part of the fun.”

Fenton heard the camera on his phone make an artificial shutter sound and clenched his jaw, the wound on his cheek shrieking.

“O-okay,” Paulina stuttered. “I’m sending it.” She pressed the phone to her ear again. “Did you get it yet? Danny’s bleeding really bad. If you can find Danny Phantom, tell him we need his help!”

Skulker tipped back his head and laughed. “Yes! Tell Phantom to come at once!”

“Oh!” Paulina exclaimed. “You got it? Yeah, it’s a lot of blood, but—” Her expression froze. Her eyebrows furrowed and she pulled the phone away from her ear so she could glare at it. “He hung up on me!”

Skulker chortled. “Excellent! He will rush over here at his fastest speed, don’t you think, human whelp?”

“Probably,” Fenton bit out through his clenched teeth.

Skulker removed his boot from Fenton’s chest, and Fenton didn’t waste any time rolling onto his stomach. He frantically pushed himself onto his hands and feet and scrambled toward his classmates huddled by the door. They backed away from him like he had some sort of disease. Skulker fired something at him—a net—and Fenton crashed to the ground again. He screamed his frustration and struggled against the ropes. Kicking. Pulling. Twisting.

“Damn it!” he howled.

Skulker laughed delightedly at his efforts. He stomped toward Fenton, his mechanical boots making hissing, clicking noises as he approached. “I see you are as fierce as ever, whelp.” He grabbed ahold of the net and lifted Fenton into the air. Fenton hissed as his weight caused the thin ropes to bite into his skin. “But woefully weak. I wonder…if I tied to you to your other half, would you slow him down?” His grin grew more vicious. “That would make for an interesting game.”

Fenton wiggled in the net, trying to get comfortable as he glared at Skulker. “You’ll have to catch him first.”

“It’s only a matter of time, now. His protective instincts and weakness for you shall be his downfall this day.”

Fenton growled through his teeth and kicked Skulker’s chest as best he could through the net.

Skulker snorted. “That tickled…”

“Are you guys sure this was a good idea?” Nathan asked anxiously. “I mean, inviting another ghost here? Isn’t that just going to result in this classroom turning into a battlefield?”

Fenton’s classmates murmured uneasily to each other.

“Not if Phantom gets here first,” Dash declared, his voice only trembling slightly. “He beat this ghost before! He can do it again, no problem!”

“Would you like to tell them, or shall I?” Skulker asked Fenton in an almost conversational tone.

Fenton scowled at him and slumped in his unwelcome hammock. All of his and Phantom’s efforts to keep whatever was building between them secret until they could figure things out for themselves had just been shattered by Skulker’s attack. “Fine,” he grumbled. “Go ahead. They’ll find out when he gets here, anyway…”

Skulker threw his arms outward, Fenton and his net swinging from his fist. Fenton hissed his name in complaint, but Skulker ignored him. “I am Skulker!” Skulker declared in a ringing voice they probably heard from several classrooms down. “The greatest hunter in all the realms! I have vowed to capture the ghost child known as Danny Phantom, and now thanks to all of you and Phantom’s other half…” Skulker raised the net and grinned victoriously at Fenton’s scowling face, “my prey is at this moment speeding toward my trap…”

The quiet that fell over Fenton’s classmates was deafening, tension adding an oppressive pressure to the air so that it felt like Fenton was suffocating.

It was broken by Paulina.

“No!” she screamed. Fenton flinched, assuming her reaction had to do with him and Phantom’s feelings for each other, but Paulina proved him wrong as she fumbled with Fenton’s phone. “No, no, no!” She pressed the phone to her ear. “Pick up, pick up, pick up! Don’t come here, Ghost Boy! Don’t come!”

Skulker laughed. “It’s far too late for that! I have studied my prey well. His temper is always at its most irrational when one he cares for has been harmed.”

Fenton pushed against the confines of his net again. “You bastard,” he growled.

“It’s just Fenton,” Dash said weakly. “Phantom wouldn’t risk everything just for Fenton, would he?”

“But Danny is his ‘other half,’” Mikey pointed out. “That’s what the robot called them. It might be a ghost thing? Danny could be special to him.”

“What, like soulmates?” Kwan asked, sounding almost intrigued.

“It’s Fenton!” Dash gestured at Fenton’s hunched form inside the net. “Just look at him! There’s no way he could be Phantom’s…other half. Soulmate. Thing. No!”

Others murmured their assent.

Fenton groaned. “I can’t decide if being called Phantom’s soulmate is better or worse than the alternative,” he whispered.

“Better,” Skulker whispered back. He lifted his other arm and stared at the screen on his wrist, only partially listening to the humans. “It’s far more amusing.”

“Yeah, for you.”

“Excuse me?” Amanda shoved Dash’s shoulder and pointed at Fenton. “Danny can’t be Phantom’s soulmate?’ Who here has been acting like a total badass? Who just bantered with a ghost while they were threatening him? Who got his cheek slashed because he was trying to be a hero? Like, uh, hello? Are you guys blind? They’re practically the same person!”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Fenton groaned.

Skulker chortled.

“Fenton is nothing like Phantom!” Dash objected, sounding offended.

Fenton struggled in his net and searched the classroom for signs of Skulker’s trap. The only thing Skulker had activated were the glowing bars in front of the door and windows, but that was just to keep the humans trapped in the room, wasn’t it? That was why they only blocked physical exits and not the walls or ceiling.

Fenton narrowed his eyes. None of his classmates had actually touched the bars, they had only backed away from them. Skulker might have used the bars for the fear factor, not as a true barrier, and if that were the case, it made sense for them to only block the door and windows. He only needed to stop the humans from getting or receiving help.

“Hey!” Fenton shouted. “Someone run through those bars and get Sam and Tucker!”

His classmates stared incredulously at him. None of them moved an inch.

“It’s far too late for that as well,” Skulker said gleefully. “My prize shall be here in five, four, three, two…” he paused dramatically, “one.”

Phantom flew through the ceiling, his hands already coated with green energy. His head jerked left and right as his eyes searched the room, coming to a stop on Fenton in his net. His eyes widened and his jaw clenched. Fenton swore. His classmates shouted, some cheering Phantom’s name, others screaming for him to run, but Phantom’s eyes narrowed and he looked too pissed to think about running.

“Skulker,” he growled, his glare moving toward Skulker, “let him go.”

“That would be counterproductive.” Skulker lifted Fenton in his net and gave it a little wiggle. Fenton grimaced as he swayed. Phantom’s gaze jerked back to him. Something dropped to the floor, but Phantom’s eyes had become fixated on Fenton again. “If you want him, Ghost Child, come and get him.”

Phantom bared his teeth.

“Don’t do it!” Dash shouted.

Phantom shot forward, one fist pulled back for a truly epic punch. Skulker floated back a few steps, and as soon as Phantom flew over the space where they had been standing, a beam of light shot up from a small cube on the floor. Phantom’s eyes widened. Fenton didn’t understand until a vortex began to pull Phantom down into the cube.

“The Fenton Thermos,” Fenton gasped.

“Inspired by it,” Skulker corrected. “I have endured the indignity often enough to replicate its effects.”

Phantom fought against the pull, struggling to fly out of its range, but the cube floated off the ground and followed his movements. The tip of his spectral tail touched the cube, and in moments it sucked him in completely.

“Phantom!” Fenton and his classmates shouted. He struggled against his net, pulling on the ropes and kicking his feet outward.

Skulker laughed his triumph as he walked toward the cube. Fenton stared in horror at the little black box, his chest aching. Phantom had been captured because of him. It wasn’t over, not by a long shot, but…it wasn’t looking good. Skulker bent down and picked up the cube. He looked between it and Fenton, a wide, vicious grin splitting his face.

Fenton glared at him. “What?”

“How long has it been, human child?” Skulker asked him. “Two years?”

“Just about,” Fenton mumbled.

“It has been a long hunt…”

It’s not over yet, Fenton thought. He tried fitting his fist through the gaps between ropes, but it was no good. The holes were too small. “You cheated!”

Skulker’s eyes narrowed. “Cheated?”

“Cheated!” Fenton repeated.

“I baited and set a trap!”

“You cheated!” Fenton looked at his classmates. They were muttering and staring at the black cube in Skulker’s hands like they had just witnessed something impossible. “Right, guys? He cheated!”

They stared back at Danny with haunted eyes until Dash surged forward, pointing angrily at Skulker, and shouted, “Cheater!”

Starr gasped and exclaimed. “Yes! Cheater!” Her voice took on a practiced tone, and she chanted, “Cheat-er, cheat-er!” until the rest of the class caught on and began to chant it with her.

“I did not cheat!” Skulker yelled, offended, but the class continued chanting. He growled viciously, growing increasingly infuriated by the witnesses to his victory calling foul. It was exactly the kind of pride snatching maneuver Fenton had hoped for, and he waited anxiously to see if Skulker would take the bait.

He did.

“FINE!” Skulker roared. He lifted his arm higher and glared at Fenton as the other students quieted and shrank back from him. “I shall give you and your other half one last chance, whelp.” Slowly, he spread his metal lips apart in an angry grin. “I believe you know how this game is played. Let’s see how well Phantom can keep you alive when he’s tethered to you.”

Fenton sucked in a breath. It wasn’t unexpected, given Skulker’s previous comments, but all the same it was frightening, being hunted. He looked at his classmates. They were his only chance to leave a message, and he shouted, frantic, “Tell Valerie!” before electricity arced through the net into his body. He screamed, arching his back, before everything went mercifully black.

 I would absolutely love to continue this as an actual short story. Like, you’ve all heard of “Danny’s classmates taking a field trip into the Ghost Zone,” now get ready for “Danny’s classmates leading a rescue attempt into the Ghost Zone to free Phantom and his other half/boyfriend Danny!” Ahh it would be so much fun. Valerie would place herself in charge (because she’s actually been through this before, and because she won’t say why they all assume its because she once dated Phantom too which pisses her off) and she and Sam would butt heads a bit on what to do. Tucker would 100% brag about how much he knows about the GZ to Dash and friends like “yeah, that’s right, I’m a badass” but they’re all still reeling over the idea Phantom is 1) gay 2) dating Fento-loser.

Phantom and Fenton, meanwhile, are doing their best to stay alive on Skulker’s island while also dealing with the romantic tension between them.

I would absolutely love it. I have no idea how I would pull it off. Action scenes are my weak point, and I’m not entirely sure how I would sneak all these kids past the Fenton parents, if Jack and Maddie should even be told, if Lancer should go with the kids, or even if they could all fit in the Specter Speeder. RIP my idea lol. I think I might put it up on Ao3 just as a potential story some day? I’m not sure. It needs work, but I made leavemyelevator-alone wait long enough for this prompt lol